Attorney General Pam Bondi pushed back Tuesday after being sued by a former immigration judge who says she was wrongfully terminated — marking the first legal challenge to the Trump administration’s sweeping removal of more than 100 immigration judges this year.
The lawsuit, filed Monday by former Ohio immigration judge Tania Nemer, accuses the Justice Department of discrimination on the basis of sex, nationality and political affiliation. It arrives as the administration intensifies its effort to reshape the immigration courts amid a surge of legal battles over its border policies.
Speaking during a White House Cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump, Bondi brushed aside the discrimination claims and instead emphasized the department’s recent work targeting violent crime and drug trafficking, even as it confronts a wave of lawsuits.
“Most recently, yesterday, I was sued by an immigration judge who we fired,” Bondi said. “One of the reasons she said she was a woman.”
“Last I checked, I was a woman as well,” she added.
Nemer’s lawsuit contends that the Justice Department violated her protections under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and infringed on her First Amendment rights to engage in political activity.
She is not alone in being removed from the bench under the Trump administration. Since January, at least 100 immigration judges have been fired or “pushed out” of their roles, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association, which represents many immigration judges.
Eight immigration judges were dismissed in New York City on Monday, the New York Times reported, raising new concerns about shrinking staff and the system’s capacity to manage an already heavy caseload.
“I think what’s happening in the immigration court system is very troubling,” Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute and director of its office at NYU’s law school, told Fox News Digital in an interview.
“People have always had doubts about the independence of the [immigration] court system,” Chishti said.
But recent events “have eroded trust completely in the Executive Office for Immigration Review,” he argued, warning that the large-scale removals could discourage qualified candidates from applying to fill the vacancies and leave those who do take the bench feeling pressured to rule a certain way.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on Nemer’s lawsuit or on the other removals reported by the Times and the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Bondi characterized the lawsuit as just one of hundreds filed against the Trump administration, which she and other officials have described as part of a broader effort to challenge the president’s agenda in court.
“We have been sued 575 times,” Bondi told Trump and members of his Cabinet. “More than every administration going back to Reagan combined.”
She also pointed to the administration’s record at the Supreme Court, where it has frequently sought emergency intervention.
“Twenty-four Supreme Court wins, President Trump,” Bondi said Tuesday. “A 92% success rate.”
The Trump administration has seen an unusually high number of Supreme Court victories this year through the so-called emergency or “shadow docket,” which allows the government to seek rapid intervention from the high court.
These appeals are often resolved in unsigned orders issued by the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority.
Though intended as temporary measures, the “shadow docket” rulings have enabled the administration to move forward with a range of policies, including its ban on transgender service members in the military, the termination of millions of dollars in Education Department grants and DEI funding, and the removal of certain federal board members, among other actions.
“We’re winning nationwide injunctions, ending DEI funding, [and] working to secure that our federal workforce is aligned with your America First agenda, representing pretty much everyone in this room,” Bondi said.
