A federal immigration judge based in San Francisco was dismissed after she questioned the Trump administration’s legal tactics and resisted a request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to fast‑track the deportation of a teenage asylum seeker, a lawsuit alleges.
The complaint, filed Thursday in federal court, claims that Judge Chloe Dillon was fired roughly 48 hours after she sent a message to a superior expressing concerns over an August 2024 incident. In the message, Dillon wrote that she was alarmed a teenage asylum seeker had been arrested by ICE after they left her courtroom, where she had just delayed ICE’s request to dismiss the individual’s case and place them into expedited removal proceedings.
Prior to the arrest, Dillon gave the individual, who was representing themselves, time to find a lawyer. She argued that the teen was “almost certainly a designated unaccompanied minor who could not be placed into expedited removal proceedings, and who thus had the right to have his already‑filed asylum application decided first by an asylum officer, and then, if necessary, by the Immigration Court,” according to the suit.
The lawsuit names the Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland, among others, and seeks reinstatement, back pay, damages and a declaration that the firing was unlawful. It claims Dillon’s First and Fifth Amendment rights were violated, and that she was terminated without notice or an opportunity to challenge the decision. The DOJ, in a statement, called the allegation “patently false” and said the department is restoring integrity to the immigration system.
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