Military lawyer swiftly fired from immigration bench after defying Trump
deportation push
[December 20, 2025]
By JOSHUA GOODMAN
MIAMI (AP) — A U.S. Army Reserve lawyer detailed as a federal
immigration judge has been fired barely a month into the job after
granting asylum at a high rate out of step with the Trump
administration’s mass deportation goals, The Associated Press has
learned.
Christopher Day began hearing cases in late October as a temporary judge
at the immigration court in Annandale, Virginia. He was fired around
Dec. 2, the National Association of Immigration Judges confirmed.
It’s unclear why Day was fired. Day and the Pentagon did not comment
when contacted by the AP, and a Justice Department spokeswoman declined
to discuss personnel matters.
But federal data from November shows he ruled on asylum cases in ways at
odds with the Trump administration’s stated goals.
Of the 11 cases he concluded in November, he granted asylum or some
other type of relief allowing the migrant to remain in the United States
a total of six times, according to federal data analyzed by Mobile
Pathways, a San Francisco-based non profit.
Such favorable outcomes for migrants have become increasingly rare as
the Trump administration seeks to slash a massive backlog of 3.8 million
asylum cases by radically overhauling the nation’s 75 immigration
courts.
As part of that drive, the Trump administration has fired almost 100
judges viewed as too liberal and over the summer eased rules allowing
any attorney, regardless of their legal background, to apply to become
what recent recruitment ads refer to as a “Deportation Judge.”
In response, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in September approved
sending up to 600 military lawyers to hear asylum cases. The goal,
migrant advocacy groups say, is to redefine a judge’s traditional duties
as a fair, independent arbiter of asylum claims into something akin to a
rubber stamp in a robe for the White House’s mass deportation goals.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association has decried the influx of
military officers lacking expertise in immigration law, likening them to
cardiologists attempting to do a hip replacement. But Pentagon and White
House officials have defended the move, saying that a campaign to rule
on pending asylum claims was something that all federal workers — as
well as migrants sometimes in limbo for years — should rally behind.
So far, only 30 members of the military have been detailed to the
immigration courts and for the most part appear to have lived up to the
administration’s expectations. Nine out of every 10 migrants whose
asylum cases were heard by such judges in November were either ordered
removed or requested to self-deport, according to federal data. Overall,
the military judges ordered removal 78% of the time compared to 63% for
all other judges.
But those like Day, whose rulings countered that trend, are especially
vulnerable if it is determined they violated their military duties, said
Dana Leigh Marks, a retired immigration judge.
“It is hard to imagine someone being fired so quickly, after five weeks
on the bench, unless it was for ideological reasons,” said Marks, the
former head of the National Association of Immigration Judges. “It’s
especially unfair to military judges because they don’t have the same
civil service protections and could face severe consequences for failing
in their assignment.”
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A man holds his immigration paperwork while handcuffed after being
detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents outside an
immigration courtroom, June 17, 2025, at the Jacob K. Javits federal
building in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova, File)
The Uniform Code of Military Justice, which governs service members,
forbids senior military leaders from interfering or retaliating against
military attorneys for their actions in a military tribunal. Army
regulations also require JAG attorneys to proceed with candor and
honesty much like all licensed lawyers are expected to do in civil
courts.
But whether those standards apply to military lawyers working outside of
the normal confines of a military tribunal is untested.
Brenner Fissell, a Villanova University law professor, said that there
are a number of personnel actions that can be taken — letters of
counseling or reprimand — that, even if found to be baseless later,
would affect one’s potential for promotion and impact their discharge.
Appealing such decisions, he said, is a byzantine process that can take
years and require hiring a costly lawyer.
“The process can be the punishment,” said Fissell, who helps run the
Orders Project, which helps provide counsel to military personnel who
believe they are being asked to carry out illegal orders.
A graduate of American University law school, Day has held multiple jobs
in the federal government over the past two decades while simultaneously
serving as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve’s Judge
Advocate General’s Corps. His last job was as an attorney for the
Federal Communications Commission during the Biden administration.
Unlike federal judges, who have lifetime tenure, immigration judges are
employees of the Justice Department, which runs immigration courts, and
can be fired by the attorney general with fewer restraints.
That message was driven home during a two-week training course in
October held for new judges, including those assigned by the Pentagon,
according to someone who attended the training on the condition of
anonymity to discuss the private sessions.
The Pentagon has offered extra incentives to military officers signing
up for temporary detail on immigration courts. Those volunteering were
promised their choice of assignments, according to an email sent by the
JAG Corps leadership in the fall, a copy of which was shared with the
AP. But if enough officers didn't come forward, officers might be
required to relocate up to six months away from home to fulfill the
mandate, according to the email.
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Associated Press writer Michael Biesecker in Washington contributed to
this report.
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