US military lawyers to serve as temporary immigration judges

Military and civilian lawyers working for the Department of Defence (DOD) will temporarily serve as immigration judges, officials said on Sept 2 – the latest effort by US President Donald Trump’s administration to turn towards the military to carry out his domestic agenda. 

Mr Trump, a Republican, kicked off a wide-ranging immigration crackdown after taking office in January. 

His administration has hailed its actions along the border, including the deployment of active-duty troops, as the reason for a sharp decline in crossings by undocumented migrants.

Mr Trump made voters’ concerns about immigration a cornerstone of his 2024 re-election campaign.

“These DOD attorneys will augment existing resources to help further combat a backlog of cases by presiding over immigration hearings,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement. 

Military lawyers are not trained to serve as immigration judges.

One US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that even with some additional training, it would be a tough task for military lawyers to learn the process, which is different from the military justice system they are trained in. 

This is not the first time the Trump administration has turned to military lawyers to shore up its domestic policy agenda. 

In August, Reuters reported that the US Attorney’s Office planned to bring in about 20 people from the DOD to serve as special assistant US attorneys to help prosecute misdemeanour cases.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has moved to reshape the top ranks of the military justice system, replacing the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force.

In his 2024 book, he was highly critical of military lawyers, saying most “spend more time prosecuting our troops than putting away bad guys”. REUTERS