A California immigration judge has launched a federal lawsuit against the Department of Justice, claiming she was ousted from the bench not for performance, but because she is a registered Democrat, a woman over 40, Spanish-speaking, and connected to immigrant-rights organizations.
According to Gateway Pundit, Judge Kyra Lilien, who began serving at the San Francisco Immigration Court in 2023 before transferring to the Concord Immigration Court in 2024, was informed last July that her two-year probationary term would not be converted into a permanent appointment. The 14-page complaint, filed this week in federal court, names the DOJ and Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche as defendants, setting up a legal clash over how far the Trump-era Justice Department may go in reshaping the immigration bench.
Lilien contends she met or exceeded every performance benchmark and received the highest possible ratings in her probationary evaluations for fiscal years 2024 and 2025. According to TRAC Immigration data cited in the suit, she denied just 34% of asylum claims brought before her, a relatively low denial rate that may have placed her at odds with a tougher enforcement posture favored by President Trumps administration.
Despite these evaluations, Lilien alleges that her removal violated her civil rights and her First Amendment protections. Her attorney, Kevin Owen of Gilbert Employment Law in Maryland, told local station KTVU that Lilien didnt fit their mold and that the actions taken against her were impermissible and unlawful.
She didnt fit their mold, Owen reiterated. And what they did to her was impermissible and unlawful. The lawsuit argues that immigration judges terminated or not retained during the same period were disproportionately female, and it highlights internal memoranda issued in early 2025 by then-acting Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) Director Sirce Owen.
Those internal directives, as described in the complaint, criticized extremist leftist organizations involved in illegal alien advocacy and Biden-era hiring practices that promoted illegal immigration and DEI hires. Lilien, KTVU reports, used to be program director for Jewish Family and Community Services, which largely helps Afghan refugees settle in the United States, and was the immigration program director for Centro Legal de la Raza in Oakland.
The filing further lists nearly 30 other immigration judges nationwide who were either dismissed or never converted from probationary status, including 14 from the Concord and San Francisco courts. KTVU reports that Lilien, who declined an interview through her attorney, is one of at least 107 immigration judges fired under the Trump administration nationwide since January 2025, according to the National Association of Immigration Judges.
She is reportedly the first judge in the Bay Area to challenge her dismissal in court. Three other immigration judges in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Cleveland have already sued over similar allegations, and Owen said that another four immigration judges are preparing to file suit soon.
The Trump administration has moved aggressively to reshape the immigration courts, removing dozens of judges hired under the previous administration as part of broader efforts to address backlogs and shift enforcement priorities. Liliens case now tests whether that effort, applauded by conservatives seeking to restore the rule of law at the border, crossed legal lines in targeting judges whose backgrounds and asylum rulings were seen as too closely aligned with extremist leftist organizations and prior pro-mass-immigration hiring practices.
Login