No, the U.S. Congress is not working on a bill to eliminate the position of immigration judges entirely in early 2026.
Instead, there has been recent legislative activity in late 2025 and early 2026 focusing on the qualifications and appointment process for temporary immigration judges:
Temporary Immigration Judge Integrity Act: This bill (H.R.6497 in the House and S.3326 in the Senate) was introduced by Democrats, including Rep. Juan Vargas and Sen. Adam Schiff, in December 2025. It aims to prevent the appointment of inexperienced individuals, such as military lawyers without prior immigration law experience, as temporary immigration judges. The bill specifies that temporary judges should be experienced law experts (e.g., former BIA members, other administrative judges, or attorneys with 10 years of immigration law experience).
Context: This
legislation was a response to actions by the White House in late 2025 to
terminate a number of tenured immigration judges and authorize up to 600
military lawyers to serve as temporary immigration judges, while potentially
waiving experience requirements.
Other existing proposals or discussions focus on moving immigration courts out of the Department of Justice (DOJ) into a new, independent Article I court system, which would change the administrative structure but not eliminate the judicial role itself.
In summary, the current legislative efforts are focused on reforming the appointment process for temporary judges and ensuring professional standards, not on eliminating the position of an immigration judge.
As of January 2026, the U.S. Congress is not considering any active legislation to eliminate immigration judges. Conversely, active bills focus on regulating and restructuring how immigration judges are appointed and utilized.
Current
Relevant Legislation (119th Congress)
Temporary Immigration Judge Integrity Act (H.R. 6497 / S. 3326): Introduced in December 2025 and active in 2026, this bill aims to prevent the replacement of permanent immigration judges with "inexperienced" temporary ones.
Goal: It
codifies the Attorney General’s authority to appoint only experienced experts
as temporary judges to reduce case backlogs while ensuring due process.
Key Provisions: It sets a 10-year experience requirement for temporary appointments, caps their service time to two years, and specifically prevents military lawyers from serving as temporary immigration judges.
Related
Legal Context
The
current focus on these bills follows a series of administrative actions in late
2025 and early 2026:
Judicial
Turnover: Reports indicate the administration recently terminated or
pushed out over 100 experienced permanent immigration judges.
Military
Attorneys: The administration authorized up to 600 military lawyers to
serve as temporary judges without requiring prior immigration law experience.
Expedited Removal: Other bills, such as the Ending Catch and Release Act (H.R. 57), seek to expand "expedited removal," which allows for the removal of certain individuals without a hearing before an immigration judge.
You can track the live status of these and other bills on Congress.gov.
Comments
Illegals admitted from 2021 forward should not be entitled to “due process”. Congress needs to lower federal spending.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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