The legislation comes after the White House authorized up to 600 military lawyers to be temporary immigration judges and scrapped requirements for them to have immigration law experience.

A fired immigration judge says she was dismissed from her job because of her gender, her status as a dual citizen of Lebanon and the fact that she once ran for municipal office in Ohio as a Democrat.

NPR's data analysis shows that the DOJ has tended to fire judges with immigrant defense backgrounds in its recent rounds of dismissals.

The move comes after the Justice Department last week made changes to who could qualify as a temporary immigration judge —effectively lowering the requirements and removing the need to have prior immigration experience.

The Chelmsford, Mass., court has hemorrhaged judges, a consequence of the Trump administration's seemingly contradictory efforts to downsize the federal government and increase immigration arrests.