Another San Francisco immigration judge was fired by the Trump administration Friday, NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit has confirmed, the third Bay Area immigration judge to be let go since July.
Immigration Judge Chloe Dillon confirmed she was terminated in response to an email from NBC Bay Area but declined to comment further.
Dillon was appointed in 2022 and was seemingly past the probationary period of her employment.
The judge’s firing coincides with a policy memo released Friday by the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) on “Adjudicator Independence and Impartiality.”
The memo suggests the Department of Justice could go after judges with “statistically improbable [case] outcome metrics.”
“In a vacuum, it is inappropriate to evaluate an adjudicator’s impartiality or performance simply by reference to the outcomes of cases,” the memo states. “However, there are limits, and adjudicator independence and impartiality does not mean that an adjudicator can consistently decide cases based on personal beliefs or personal policy preferences at odds with applicable law and interpretations of the Attorney General.”
As of late last year, Dillon had granted asylum in roughly 96% of the more than 500 cases that came before her, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University. Her grant rate may have put her at odds with an administration attempting to carry out deportations.
There are several factors, however, that make it difficult to compare asylum grant rates from judge to judge, such as where the respondents on their docket come from, the percentage of respondents who have legal representation, or whether the respondents on the judge’s docket are being held in detention.
An EOIR spokesperson did not immediately respond to NBC Bay Area’s request for comment on the firing, or whether it was related to the new policy guidelines.
Dillon is the seventh Bay Area immigration judge to be removed since President Trump took office, though most of the others had still been within their probationary period.
Last month, San Francisco Immigration Judge Ila Deiss, who was fired in July, said the court’s independence has been eroded under the new administration.
“We’ve very recently been directed how to rule on motions, which would never even cross our minds before,” Deiss said. “It seems absurd.”
Plainclothes ICE agents have also been mainstays at Bay Area immigration court since this Spring, arresting dozens of migrants coming out of hearings.
Most of those arrested have been asylum seekers, according to attorneys, many of them without criminal records who have been complying with what the government has asked of them.
In fact, July marked the second month in a row where ICE arrested more immigrants in California with clean criminal records, than those with past convictions or pending charges.
This is a developing story. Stay tuned for updates.
Source: NBC Bay Area