The Trump administration fired four senior officials at the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees U.S. immigration courts, late Monday.
The officials were Sheila McNulty, Chief Immigration Judge; Acting Director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, Mary Cheng; The office’s general counsel, Jill Anderson; And its head of policy, Lauren Alder-Reid.
They were all government employees, not political appointees. Alder Reid said they had received no warning.
“I and my colleagues in the Senior Executive Service are shocked and deeply disappointed by the decision to remove us from our positions without warning or reason,” she said. “We have dedicated our careers to upholding the rule of law, regardless of administration. Our ongoing pursuit of justice will not diminish.”
The four fired officials have decades of experience leading the country’s overburdened immigration courts. The Ministry of Justice employs more than 700 employees Immigration judgeswho decide whether immigrants seeking asylum in the United States can remain in the country legally. The court system is facing a record backlog of more than 3 million cases.
Spokesmen for the Trump administration and the Executive Office for Immigration Review did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the separations.
The dismissals came shortly after President Donald Trump signed a series of decisions Executive orders Immigration related Monday night. The first-day orders and firings come on the heels of Trump’s campaign promises Issuing mass deportations and reshaping the American immigration system immediately upon taking office.
