Resignation of Immigration Courts Director Creates Leadership Void
The Director of the Justice Department’s immigration courts has stepped down, raising questions about the future direction of a key role integral to the Trump administration’s deportation strategy.
Darren Margolin, who was appointed as director of the Justice Department’s Office of Immigration Review in October, announced his resignation in an email to staff on July 16. The resignation will take effect on July 18. In the email, reviewed by Bloomberg Law, Margolin cited a chronic back issue necessitating surgery, but he did not elaborate on his future leadership plans.
With nearly three decades of experience as a Marine lawyer and several years as a trial lawyer for the Department of Homeland Security, Margolin emerged as a prominent figure in President Donald Trump’s second term, taking charge of the immigration courts responsible for enforcing deportation orders.
Since his appointment in October, Margolin has overseen the hiring of over 250 immigration judges. This latest influx of judges includes military attorneys on temporary six-month contracts tasked with adjudicating asylum claims and handling Immigration and Customs Enforcement expulsion requests, as noted in a Bloomberg Law analysis.
In his email to staff, Margolin expressed gratitude for their dedication, highlighting that the court’s backlog has decreased from over 4 million cases to under 3.5 million. He also reported that immigration judges, who operate under the Justice Department and are not part of an independent court system, managed more than 100,000 cases in the preceding month.
Margolin projected an even busier year ahead, indicating that the agency is on track to significantly surpass the number of cases adjudicated the previous year. He remarked on the honor of serving as Director at both the Justice Department and EOIR.
Following his resignation announcement, the Justice Department removed Margolin from its directors’ webpage on July 17, while he updated his LinkedIn to reflect his retirement date as July 2026.
Margolin’s appointment of new judges, including several former ICE attorneys, follows the recent mass dismissal of more than 100 immigration judges, many of whom had previous experience as immigration lawyers. Margolin’s extensive background includes serving as an assistant immigration judge in several California courts for three and a half years, and overseeing significant reforms at the Board of Immigration Appeals, the highest administrative entity responsible for interpreting immigration law.
The succession plan for EOIR remains uncertain following Margolin’s exit. Deputy Chief Justice Stephen Keene, who was appointed in April after a brief stint as an immigration judge in California, is a potential candidate for leadership. Chief Immigration Judge Teresa Riley, a former federal prosecutor who quickly ascended to her current role, is also influential within the agency. Riley has directed judges to prioritize the administration’s deportation initiatives and is involved in the training of new immigration judges, emphasizing a strategy to deny most asylum applications and issue deportation orders.
