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Lawyers See Immigration Court as Trump ‘Deportation Machine’

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents look on as an undocumented man is received by a Mexican immigration agent at a removal gate of the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego, California, U.S., on Feb. 26, 2015. 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents look on as an undocumented man is received by a Mexican immigration agent at a removal gate of the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego, California, U.S., on Feb. 26, 2015. 

Photographer: David Maung/Bloomberg

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The Trump administration’s new quotas for immigration judges who rule on deportations is straining an an already overloaded system and threatens its credibility, according to the unions representing those judges and the lawyers who appear before them.

The U.S. Justice Department notified the administrative judges under its purview on March 30 that their job performance will now be linked closely to how quickly they close cases, a plan aimed at speeding up deportations and reducing the backlog.