Episode Details

San Francisco’s main immigration court has shut down — the first major city to lose its primary asylum hub — leaving thousands of immigrants and lawyers in chaos. Once staffed by 21 judges, it now has just two, as Trump-era reforms targeted liberal judges and replaced them with military lawyers. The court, known for its high asylum approval rate and strong legal support for immigrants, is now replaced by a distant, high-security court in Concord, causing delays that risk expiring critical paperwork. Lawyers report constant upheaval, with judges fired mid-case, leaving clients in legal limbo — one case even had an asylum order granted, then voided because the judge was fired before signing. Critics suspect the closure is a deliberate strategy to make asylum harder to win, leveraging the Justice Department’s unique control over immigration courts.

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