The Department of Justice (DOJ) under the United States executed on May 1st, released a memorandum indicating that the San Francisco Immigration Court will be permanently closed. The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) is responsible for overseeing immigration courts.
According to the memorandum, the court operations at 100 Montgomery Street will be relocated to the nearby Concord court as it will be more cost-effective. The San Francisco Immigration Court, situated at 630 Sansome Street, a smaller court mainly handling cases of immigrants and detainees by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), will continue its operations until September 4th, and thereafter, the hearings will be managed by the Concord court.
The San Francisco Immigration Court used to be a focal point for immigration case adjudication, with around 20 judges and an approval rate for asylum and other relief applications close to 71%, notably higher than the national average of 47.9%. Currently, there are only two judges left.
According to data compiled by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), the San Francisco Immigration Court still has over 117,000 pending detention cases. The majority of these cases will be transferred to the Concord court, which currently has 4 immigration judges with a backlog of 58,980 cases. As per an EOIR press release, the Concord Immigration Court was established in February 2024 and can potentially hire 21 judges at full capacity.
Milli Atkinson, the Legal Director of a low-income immigration assistance program at the San Francisco Bar Association, cautioned individuals with pending cases at the closing court to stay informed about the next hearing’s schedule and location.
Expressing concerns for the future, Atkinson told The Epoch Times via email, “Given the limited number of judges at both the Concord and San Francisco courts, we worry whether cases will receive fair and just rulings. We anticipate longer delays and more severe case backlogs.”
The decision to close the San Francisco court came after the dismissal of 12 judges in 2025. Most of those judges had an asylum approval rate of about 90%. Former Concord Immigration Court judge Kyra Lilien was terminated on July 22, 2025. According to TRAC data, her case approval rate was 65.8%.
Lilien filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice and Attorney General Todd Blanche on May 1st in the San Francisco federal court, alleging wrongful termination. The lawsuit claims that the DOJ’s memorandum in early 2025 to terminate the “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) policy was the cause of these terminations.
The lawsuit alleges that these memorandums revealed management hostility towards hiring individuals with backgrounds in immigrant rights, women, minorities, and others who could be considered candidates for “DEI” employment. Before her appointment as an immigration judge in 2023, Lilien worked with several immigration advocacy groups. The lawsuit further states that 16 immigration judges, including four from the San Francisco court and five from the Concord court, were dismissed around the same time as Lilien, all having backgrounds advocating for immigrant rights.
A DOJ spokesperson informed The Epoch Times via email that EOIR plans to introduce new immigration judges at least quarterly; since January 20, 2025, EOIR has reduced the pending immigration cases by over 428,000, dropping from over 4.1 million to just under 3.55 million, marking the largest case reduction in the agency’s history.