San Francisco Immigration Judge List: Roster, Firings, and Closure

The San Francisco Immigration Court’s roster is down to two sitting immigration judges — Steven M. Kirchner and Frank Seminerio — after the Trump administration fired at least 12 of the court’s judges during 2025 and began shutting the courthouse down.¹² At the start of 2025 the court had 21 judges hearing cases from across Northern and Central California. By mid-2026 the main courthouse had closed and roughly 120,000 pending cases were being reassigned to the Concord Immigration Court about 35 miles away.³

Who Is Still on the Bench

The San Francisco Immigration Court’s official directory lists two immigration judges: Steven M. Kirchner and Frank Seminerio. Julie L. Nelson serves as the Assistant Chief Immigration Judge, the supervisory role, with Jonathan W. Hitesman listed as backup. Candelaria Morgart is acting Court Administrator.¹

Nelson was appointed in February 2017 by Attorney General Loretta Lynch and previously worked as assistant chief counsel for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.⁴ As of March 2026 she remained in her position and had not been affected by the terminations.⁵

Both remaining judges were appointed in October 2021 by Attorney General Merrick Garland.⁶ Kirchner came from administrative law, including work as a senior attorney adjudicator for the Social Security Administration and a hearing examiner for the Ohio Board of Nursing. Between fiscal years 2020 and 2025 he decided 1,274 asylum cases on the merits, granting relief about 61% of the time.⁷

Seminerio previously served as a supervising administrative law judge for New York State and as an assistant district attorney. His asylum denial rate ran higher than his San Francisco colleagues, roughly 58% over fiscal years 2019 through 2024. That was close to the national average but about double the San Francisco court’s overall rate during the same period. He also presided over a disproportionate share of cases involving unrepresented immigrants.⁸ By February 2026, with most former colleagues gone, Seminerio was handling as many as 33 cases in a single day, split between the court’s two remaining courtroom locations.⁹

Who Was Fired and When

The firings came in waves through 2025. The earliest began in the spring and continued into early fall.

Spring Through September 2025

Judge Chloe Dillon, a former Federal Defenders of San Diego trial attorney appointed in 2022, was terminated on August 22, 2025 by an email titled “Notice of Termination” that offered no explanation.¹⁰ Judge Shira Levine, a former immigrant advocacy staff attorney appointed out of Stanford Law School, was fired on September 3, 2025. TRAC data showed she had granted relief in nearly every proceeding requesting protection.¹¹

On September 9, 2025 the firings reached the supervisory level. Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Loi McCleskey, the direct supervisor for every judge at the court, was terminated by email. Her asylum grant rate was roughly 70%.¹²¹³ By that point seven San Francisco judges had been fired. The DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review had released a memo warning that “adjudicatory outliers” with “statistically improbable outcome metrics” could face consequences.¹⁰

November 2025

On November 21, 2025 five more San Francisco judges were fired in a single day, bringing the total to 12. They were Amber George, Jeremiah Johnson, Louis Gordon, Shuting Chen, and Patrick Savage.¹⁴ All five had asylum grant rates significantly above the national average, ranging from about 89% for Johnson to 96% for Gordon.¹⁵

Johnson, a 2017 Trump appointee with eight years on the bench, said he received a four-sentence email stating his services were “no longer needed.”¹⁶ George was reportedly escorted out by staff in the middle of a hearing.¹⁵ The five left behind an estimated 25,000 pending cases.

December 2025 and After

Judge Arwen Swink, who had served nearly nine years on the San Francisco bench with an asylum grant rate of about 78%, was fired on December 19, 2025, becoming the 13th San Francisco judge terminated that year.¹⁷¹⁸ Others departed through pressured early retirement, and by early 2026 the court was down to four judges and one supervisor.³

The Pattern in the Firings

The terminations followed a clear statistical shape. Of the 12 Bay Area judges fired through November 2025, 11 had asylum grant rates higher than the national average, according to a KQED analysis.¹⁴ TRAC data showed individual judge grant rates at the San Francisco courthouse ranging from about 5% to 97%.¹⁹

Former immigration judge Dana Leigh Marks observed that the firings appeared to target judges with backgrounds in immigrant advocacy, private practice, or public interest law, while those who had previously served as ICE prosecutors largely kept their positions.¹⁴ Judges at the court had also reportedly been pressured at the start of 2025 to double their caseloads to four hearings per day and to grant asylum less frequently.²

A DOJ spokesperson said the department was correcting what it called “de facto amnesty” under the Biden administration and acting against judges who demonstrated “systemic bias.”²⁰ The fired judges rejected that characterization. Johnson said publicly: “If you fire judges, then you stop having courts. If you stop having courts, you stop having the rule of law.” He said he had never received any complaints of bias.¹⁶

The Courthouse Is Closing

Alongside the firings, the DOJ announced closure of the main San Francisco Immigration Court at 100 Montgomery Street. EOIR spokesperson Kathryn Mattingly said consolidating operations at the Concord Immigration Court would be “more cost-effective.”² The Montgomery Street courthouse closed on May 1, 2026, eight months ahead of the original schedule.²¹

Roughly 100,000 pending cases are being transferred to Concord, about 35 miles northeast of San Francisco. Around 17,000 cases are expected to remain at a smaller San Francisco location at 630 Sansome Street, which has two operating courtrooms.²² EOIR said it would issue new hearing notices to all parties whose cases were reassigned.²¹

Concord opened in February 2024 with 11 judges and was designed to expand to 21. As of mid-2026 its roster lists eight immigration judges, supervised by the same Julie Nelson who oversees San Francisco.²³³²¹

An estimated 15,000 cases fell into administrative limbo during the closure transition, with hearing dates changed or canceled without adequate notice.²¹ The Concord facility is difficult to reach by public transit, has minimal signage, and limited waiting areas. Attorneys report clients receiving inconsistent information about rescheduled dates, and some have shown up at the wrong courthouse. Local nonprofits including La Raza Centro Legal have paused intake for new cases.²² Milli Atkinson of the San Francisco Bar Association projected that individuals will be “waiting years and years” for their hearings. Advocates warn missed hearings caused by the confusion could result in deportation orders against people who did not know when or where to appear.²⁴

Where Cases Are Heard Now

The Montgomery Street courthouse at 100 Montgomery Street, Suite 800 closed to operations on May 1, 2026. The secondary San Francisco location at 630 Sansome Street, 4th Floor, Room 475, San Francisco, CA 94111 remains open, with public hours from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and window filing from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays. Both close on federal holidays. The court’s phone number is 415-705-4415.¹

Hearings run in person, by internet-based video, or by telephone. Telephonic hearings are accessed by dialing 1-415-527-5035 and entering the access code assigned to the presiding judge.²⁵ The Concord Immigration Court, absorbing the bulk of San Francisco’s caseload, is at 1855 Gateway Boulevard, Suite 850, Concord, CA 94520.²³

The Legal Fight Over the Firings

Immigration judges are not part of the judicial branch. They are DOJ employees appointed by the Attorney General. Historically, judges who completed their probationary periods were covered by civil service protections under 5 U.S.C. § 7513, which permits removal “only for such cause as will promote the efficiency of the service.”²⁶

The Trump administration argued that immigration judges are “inferior officers” removable at will under Article II. In Jackler and Jaroch Consolidation v. Department of Justice, the Merit Systems Protection Board agreed, holding that applying civil service tenure protections to immigration judges violates Article II. The Board concluded it lacked jurisdiction to hear challenges to their removal.²⁶

Despite that ruling, at least eight fired Biden-era appointees have filed federal lawsuits alleging discrimination based on sex, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and political affiliation. The DOJ has moved to dismiss at least one of the suits, arguing immigration judges are not entitled to relief under the Civil Rights Act given their status as removable inferior officers. Two non-probationary judges appealed an MSPB loss to the Federal Circuit, testing whether the Board’s constitutional ruling will hold.²⁷

San Francisco was the sharpest concentration of a national campaign. The administration fired nearly 100 immigration judges across the country in 2025, and total losses through firings and voluntary resignations exceeded 125 out of about 700.²⁸ San Francisco lost 16 judges, more than any other court, with at least 12 confirmed as outright firings.²

1
U.S. Department of Justice. San Francisco Immigration Court
2
NPR. Trump Immigration Judges Dismissals Numbers
3
NPR. San Francisco Immigration Court Closure
4
U.S. Department of Justice. EOIR Swears In 12 Immigration Judges
5
Office of Congressman Mark DeSaulnier. Congressman DeSaulnier Questions Department of Justice on Local Impact
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U.S. Department of Justice. EOIR Announces 24 New Immigration Judges
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TRAC Immigration. Immigration Judge Reports – Steven M. Kirchner
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TRAC Immigration. Immigration Judge Reports – Frank Seminerio
9
Mission Local. SF Immigration Court Asylum Seekers
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SF Standard. Shell-Shocked SF Immigration Court Reels From Judge Firings
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San Francisco Chronicle. SF Judges Fired Over Asylum Rates
12
Mission Local. Trump Admin Fires Assistant Chief SF Immigration Judge
13
NBC Bay Area. San Francisco Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Fired
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KQED. After Trump Fires 5 More SF Immigration Judges, Legal Scholars Fear a More Partisan System
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Mission Local. SF Immigration Judges Fired
16
KTVU. Trump Administration Fires at Least 15 Immigration Judges in Bay Area
17
Mission Local. SF Immigration Judges Fired – Arwen Swink
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KQED. San Francisco Immigration Court Down to Four Judges After New Departures
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TRAC Immigration. Asylum Decisions Vary Enormously Across Judges
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ABC7 News. San Francisco Loses 21 Immigration Judges
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ABC7 News. DOJ Closes San Francisco Immigration Court Ahead of Schedule
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WYPR. San Francisco Immigration Court Shuts Down
23
U.S. Department of Justice. Concord Immigration Court
24
The Guardian. DOJ Closes San Francisco Immigration Court Case Backlog
25
U.S. Department of Justice. Find Immigration Court and Access Internet-Based Hearings
26
Lawfare. MSPB Strikes Down Tenure Protections for Immigration Judges
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Bloomberg Law. Fired Immigration Judges Test Trump’s Executive Power in Suits
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NPR. Trump Immigration Judges