Hundreds of military lawyers to serve as US immigration judges

Immigration courts buckling under backlog of cases

Federal agents detain a man outside an immigration court in New York. AFP

The Pentagon is sending hundreds of military and civilian lawyers to work temporarily as immigration judges as President Donald Trump's administration seeks to accelerate deportations the US.

It is the latest instance of Mr Trump using the military to carry out domestic civilian functions, following the deployment of National Guard troops to Washington and Los Angeles.

He has also sent the National Guard to patrol parts of the US-Mexico border, contributing to a drastic drop in illegal crossings.

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The Pentagon is already being used to enforce migrant cases. Some of the thousands of people awaiting deportation are being housed on military bases and military aircraft are being used for deportations.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that Defence Department lawyers “will augment existing resources to help further combat a backlog of cases by presiding over immigration hearings”.

The Associated Press cited a memo from Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth in which he approved sending up to 600 military lawyers to the Justice Department.

Known as Judge Advocates General, or Jags, military lawyers are not typically trained in immigration law so would need to get up to speed before adjudicating immigration hearings.

America's immigration courts are buckling under a backlog of about 3.5 million cases, a number that will only rise as the Trump administration continues its clampdown.

Sean Timmons, a Texas former army Jag who now practises military law as a civilian, said it can take up to five years for a migrant to have an initial court hearing, with the final adjudication sometimes taking as long as a decade.

He said using military lawyers, especially reservists, was a creative solution to address the backlog.

“Are they the most qualified people? Probably not. But are they capable? I would say yes,” Mr Timmons told The National. “Jags are versatile and their role is to be adaptable. They're trained in administrative law … applying immigration law is just applying administrative law.”

He said previous administrations had been lax about enforcing existing immigration laws.

“If we're actually going to enforce all those laws and we're actually going to hold everybody accountable to the law as it's written, you're going to need a tonne of judges.”

Texas National Guard agents prevent migrants from Venezuela from crossing a barbed wire fence in El Paso. AFP