Overview

• The authorization, detailed in an August 27 memo reviewed by the Associated Press, calls for an initial group of 150 attorneys to be identified by next week and sent to the Justice Department as soon as practicable.
• Assignments are set to last no more than 179 days with the option to renew, according to the memo.
• The Justice Department requested the Pentagon support, and a White House official said the effort should be a priority for those awaiting adjudication.
• Union figures indicate there are about 600 immigration judges currently, so the deployment could roughly double the number handling cases after at least 17 judges were dismissed or departed earlier this year.
• The move aligns with the administration’s push to accelerate arrests and deportations, with stated emphasis on cases involving criminal conduct or public safety threats.