- Utah's immigration judges have been reduced from five to two, creating a case backlog.
- The remaining judges now face over 60,000 deportation cases.
- Judge shortages could complicate President Donald Trump's mass deportation plans, with no replacements in sight.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's immigration caseload has gotten a lot heavier for its two remaining immigration judges.
Adam Crayk, senior partner at Stowell Crayk PLLC, a local immigration law firm, told KSL NewsRadio that Utah had five immigration judges at the beginning of 2025. He said that now, only two remain.
"Chaos is a perfect definitional word for what we have going on right now," Crayk said.
Judge Nathan Aina accepted one of the federal workers' buyouts offered by the Trump administration earlier this year.
Then, Crayk said Judge Douglas Nelson was fired a week and a half before reaching his two-year anniversary of becoming a judge, which would have made his position permanent.
Nelson was one of more than a dozen judges fired by the Trump administration in the last week or so.
And on Friday, Judge Phillip Truman resigned.
Crayk said this leaves only two judges to handle more than 60,000 deportation cases in the state of Utah.
Fewer immigration judges mean longer waits
When they had four judges to work with, they were already having to schedule deportation hearings into 2029.
"I imagine we're going to be getting dates into 2031, 2032; I can't even imagine. I would think that almost into 2034," Crayk said.
President Donald Trump's administration has fired more than a dozen immigration judges around the country recently.
Crayk says this makes it harder for the president to fulfill his campaign promise of carrying out mass deportations, since it's taking longer for people to get hearings.
"When you get rid of immigration judges, and you create a logjam like this, you effectively make the problem worse," Crayk said.
Chaos is a perfect definitional word for what we have going on right now.
–Adam Crayk, senior partner at Stowell Crayk PLLC
And Crayk says he doesn't see the problem getting better anytime soon, since it doesn't appear there are any new listings to replace these judges.
"You're never going to get through that logjam," Crayk said.
And to make matters worse, Crayk said one of the remaining judges is close to retiring.
"My goodness, we could be getting down to a point where we have one left. And that one would have 60,000 (cases) to himself," he said.
Crayk says the thousands of immigrants who are waiting to learn whether they'll be able to stay in the country might have to wait years longer to learn what'll happen to them.
KSL reached out to the Salt Lake City Immigration Court for comment but has not been able to reach anyone for comment.
Contributing: Sam Herrera
