Main: President Donald Trump gestures as he finishes his speech at the Republican convention Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez). Left inset: Chloe Dillon (San Mateo County Private Defender's Office).
Adding to the pile of lawsuits from fired immigration judges, a California attorney is suing the Trump administration's Department of Justice (DOJ) and alleging she was "terminated in retaliation for her whistleblowing activity."
Immigration judges, unlike federal U.S. district judges, circuit judges, and Supreme Court justices, do not have lifetime jobs and are not part of the judicial branch. Rather, they serve in the executive branch and are appointed by the U.S. attorney general after a "full background investigation."
To propel its mass deportation campaign forward, the Trump administration has recruited "deportation judges" and reportedly ousted more than 100 immigration judges along the way.
Chloe Dillon's complaint, filed Thursday, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, began with a quote from George Orwell's "Animal Farm."
"If liberty means anything at all," the quote said, "it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."
Dillon maintains that her firing shows she was robbed of that right approximately 48 hours after she raised concerns to a supervisor that ICE may have "unlawfully detained" a minor.
The lawsuit said Dillon received "excellent reviews" for her work as an immigration judge in San Francisco from September 2022 until August 2025, during which she "resolved thousands of cases" with "decisions [that] were almost never appealed."
Dillon, now listed as the head of criminal immigration defense for San Mateo County's Private Defender Program, recalled questioning a "directive" in spring 2025 from the San Francisco assistant chief immigration judge (ACIJ) to "grant any and all motions to change venue filed by the Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement trial attorneys."
"Plaintiff questioned the directive as contrary to law," court documents said. "The ACIJ informed her that 'the White House' was watching the issue and cautioned her against resisting the directive."
Then came an Aug. 20, 2025, incident and the concerns she raised in an email to her supervisor that ICE agents "unlawfully detained an unaccompanied minor who had just been in her courtroom, placing him in expedited removal proceedings."
The complaint said Dillon "further expressed her concern that the enforcement tactics being used at the courthouse were impeding the orderly administration of justice," only to be fired by email within 48 hours.
"On August 22, 2025, Plaintiff was terminated without cause, via an emailed letter citing only 'Article II of the Constitution,'" the lawsuit said, noting the letter was signed by Acting Director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review Sirce Owen, not the U.S. attorney general. "Plaintiff was not provided notice and an opportunity to be heard, nor did EOIR claim to remove her for any statutorily allowable reason."
Owen's letter said, in part, that the "Attorney General has decided to remove you from your position as an excepted service Immigration Judge[.]"
Alleging violations of the Whistleblower Protection Act and the First Amendment, the plaintiff asked a federal judge to order her reinstatement and award her "lost pay and benefits."
"Plaintiff reported suspected violations of law, rule, or regulation to her supervisor, a person in a position of authority. Two days later, she received an emailed letter from the Acting Director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, informing her that the Attorney General was terminating her employment 'pursuant to Article II of the Constitution,'" the complaint said, seeking damages. "Plaintiff was terminated in retaliation for her whistleblowing activity."
"Defendants have never provided a legitimate justification for Plaintiff's removal," the lawsuit added, as the DOJ maintains that immigration judges can be "removed" at will.