The New Yorker:

E. Tammy Kim
A contributing writer who covers politics and labor.

In September, while reporting on the Trump Administration’s attacks on the immigration system, I visited the courtroom of Judge Jeremiah Johnson, in downtown San Francisco. He was presiding over a large batch of preliminary hearings, mostly concerning applications for asylum. The courthouse was emptier than usual. Many applicants were afraid to show up, since ice had recently made arrests in the hallways. And about a hundred of the nation’s seven hundred or so immigration judges, including some of Johnson’s colleagues, had either resigned, retired, or been fired since the beginning of the year. Even judges, it turned out, could not escape the shrinking of the federal workforce.

Despite this upheaval, Johnson, who’s reedy and outgoing, projected calm. He greeted the immigrants who came before him with a big smile and the word “namaste.” Some of the immigrants were kids. Through Spanish, Mam, and Hindi interpreters, he advised everyone of their rights and obligations. “The purpose of these proceedings is to determine whether you can stay in the United States,” he told a woman named Guadalupe.

When the federal government shut down for all of October and half of November, Johnson and other immigration judges kept working, without pay. Their services were considered essential. During this period, I didn’t hear of any firings in the courts. But, as has become the norm this year, there were plenty in other parts of the government, including at the Departments of Energy, Education, Health and Human Services, and Commerce.

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