AXIOS (Brittany Gibson) - Inside Trump's purge of U.S. immigration courts
The next big phase of President Trump's mass deportations is set to begin as "deportation judges" turn to 3.6 million backlogged cases. Why it matters: Speeding up immigration court rulings could allow ICE to carry out more deportations , as most cases end in final removal orders. - Trump spent much of 2025 purging the beleaguered immigration courts. 55 immigration judges were fired, and another 80 retired. - He then went to MAGA central casting to appoint America's new top immigration judge, retired Marine Corps Col. Daren Margolin. Zoom in: Margolin retired from being an immigration judge in early 2024 because of his disgust with the Biden administration's handling of the surge at the southern border. - "Personally, I felt like a…