WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today released the following statement regarding the termination of Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Jennifer Peyton, a non-political, esteemed official who led the Chicago Immigration Court, by the Trump Administration:
“On July 3, Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Jennifer Peyton was abruptly fired without any stated cause. Judge Peyton’s termination notice simply said that Attorney General Pam Bondi was removing her ‘pursuant to Article II of the Constitution.’
“Judge Peyton had served as an Immigration Judge since 2016, and in 2022, she was promoted to Assistant Chief Immigration Judge. Why would the Trump Administration want to fire an experienced, non-political judge like Judge Peyton? A few weeks ago, as I have done many times as a Senator, I visited the Chicago Immigration Court to conduct oversight. Judge Peyton took time to show me the court and explain its functions. Soon after, she received an email from Department of Justice political appointees. The email claimed that immigration judges should not directly communicate with members of Congress and congressional staff and required all communications from congressional offices to be forwarded to headquarters for review and response. Judge Peyton was fired soon after. Her abrupt termination is an abuse of power by the Administration to punish a non-political judge simply for doing her job.
“Congressional oversight is not just our right, but our constitutional responsibility to the public. Judge Peyton understood that and made her courtroom available. Sadly, her termination is part of a larger campaign to fire experienced, non-political leadership and to prevent congressional oversight of this Administration’s gross abuses of power. We cannot abide these fear tactics—I stand by Judge Peyton and many others like her who have been fired for simply doing their jobs.”
In February, the Trump Administration fired all of the career leadership at the Executive Office of Immigration Review, the arm of the Justice Department that oversees immigration courts, and began firing immigration judges—many of whom had served during the first Trump Administration. Since February, dozens of nonpartisan, apolitical judges have been fired, even as the immigration courts face a backlog of nearly 3.5 million cases.
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