𝐈𝐂𝐘𝐌𝐈: 𝐃𝐎𝐉 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐒 𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐉𝐔𝐃𝐆𝐄 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐌𝐏-𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐂 𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐒𝐓 𝐕𝐈𝐙𝐆𝐔𝐄𝐑𝐑𝐀 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐈𝐂𝐄 𝐂𝐔𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐃𝐘
Brea Burgie is no longer an immigration judge. She's one of more than 𝟏𝟎𝟎 𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐣𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐬 the Justice Department has fired since Trump took office, and her own record explains why she made the list.
Late last year, Burgie granted bond to Jeanette Vizguerra, a self-described immigrant-rights activist and outspoken Trump critic who ICE had held for months after picking her up during a lunch break at a Target. Vizguerra walked out of custody. ICE's response at the time was blunt, calling Burgie an “𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘥𝘨𝘦” for the ruling.
Burgie now says DOJ began tracking immigration judges' bond-grant statistics "𝘪𝘯 𝘶𝘯𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴" right after the inauguration, and that she was later instructed to 𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐲 𝐛𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 under a reinterpreted 1990s statute, a blanket order to stop using judgment case by case. She's framing her firing as punishment for following the law as written.
The administration's view is simpler: immigration judges answer to the executive branch, and one who kept siding with an activist who spent years fighting her own deportation wasn't doing the job DOJ hired her to do. A hundred-plus firings later, the message to the rest of the bench is not subtle.
𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜, 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐣𝐨𝐛.