'Systemic attack': Trump firing spree hits SF immigration court , Trump's firing all the women judges [View all]

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'Systemic attack': Trump firing spree hits SF immigration court https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/trump-fires-san-francisco-immigration-judge-21043584.php

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The Trump administration fired another San Francisco immigration judge on Tuesday, the seventh such dismissal in recent months, according to multiple media reports. The San Francisco Bar Association’s Immigrant Legal Defense Program confirmed to SFGATE that Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Loi McCleskey, who oversaw court administration and operations in one of the nation’s busiest immigration courts, was fired via email. 

McCleskey granted asylum in about 70% of her cases, compared to the national average of about 42%, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse database. High asylum grant rates mean a greater number of asylum claims are approved, allowing migrants seeking protection from persecution in their home countries to live in the U.S. legally. Several of the judges previously fired by the administration, including Shira Levine, Chloe Dillon and Ila Deiss in San Francisco and Kyra Lilien in Concord, also had high asylum grant rates. 


SFGATE reached out to McCleskey but she did not reply before publication. 
Legal experts are sounding the alarms, warning that the dismissal threatens to deepen case backlogs and continue to erode judicial independence. Milli Atkinson, director of the San Francisco Bar Association’s Immigrant Legal Defense Program, told SFGATE in a statement that McCleskey was a “dedicated civil servant,” underscoring her years of experience navigating the complex nature of immigration law. 

“With millions of cases pending nationwide and over 120,000 cases before the San Francisco court, we anticipate that ACIJ McCleskey’s termination will lead to further delays and inefficiencies at the court,” Atkinson said. “This unprecedented attack against the judiciary and civil servants is an attack on due process and the rule of law for everyone.”