DOJ Firing Threat Hits Overloaded Immigration Dockets

Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C. — The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington. Photo: Carol M. Highsmith

A top Justice Department official told U.S. attorneys to prepare for “full-on battle” or consider resigning. The offices facing more departures are the same ones already too short-staffed to answer every immigration habeas petition.

Aakash Singh, the Justice Department’s principal associate deputy attorney general, told U.S. attorneys and their first assistants on Monday, Nov. 9, that more of them will be pushed out soon, Bloomberg Law reported, citing three people briefed on the call. It was the first meeting of DOJ field office leaders since the Nov. 3 midterms. According to the report, Singh told the leaders to consider resigning if they were not ready for “full-on battle” and to follow the administration’s orders. He did not name who would go next. MS NOW separately reported the call, citing two people with knowledge of it, and said Singh described the department as on a “wartime footing” for the last two years of President Trump’s term.

Bloomberg Law’s account does not mention immigration. But the department’s own explanation of the “wartime” language, and the strain U.S. attorneys’ offices are already under from immigration litigation, point to how the shakeup could reach immigrants, their lawyers and the courts.

What Singh told U.S. attorneys

Singh repeated the department’s priorities: fraud against taxpayer funds and violent crime, with matters outside those areas pushed down the list. He also told offices to close investigations open two years or longer, and asked each of the 93 offices to name two or three assistant U.S. attorneys who can move quickly to high-priority cases in other districts, according to Bloomberg Law.

Justice Department spokesperson Kiersten Pels told Bloomberg Law the “wartime” reference was about public safety. She pointed to newly elected state and local leaders who no longer want to partner with federal law enforcement and said U.S. attorneys must be ready to protect communities from people breaking federal law.

Why the “wartime” explanation points to sanctuary fights

The department did not name any jurisdiction, and it did not say immigration. But the most visible post-election break between local leaders and federal law enforcement has been over ICE cooperation. Within days of the vote, Houston Mayor John Whitmire ordered police to stop calling ICE about many nonviolent stops, Austin began rewriting its ICE contact rules to take effect when Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa takes office, and D.C. Mayor-elect Janeese Lewis George said she wants to end MPD’s cooperation with ICE.

Singh has pressed U.S. attorneys on this before. In November 2025, Bloomberg Law reported, he ordered offices to report progress on Trump’s April executive order directing DOJ to list sanctuary jurisdictions and pursue legal action against them, along with counts of prosecutions of adult sponsors of unaccompanied migrant children. In February, Bloomberg Law reported that he had criticized prosecutors in liberal-leaning districts for not doing enough to combat sanctuary policies. Whether Monday’s message leads to new cases against local officials is not known. Courts have upheld most sanctuary laws, and a Rhode Island judge this month permanently barred DOJ from tying Byrne JAG grants to immigration cooperation in 22 states and D.C.

Offices already short on lawyers for immigration cases

The more direct effect may be on capacity. U.S. attorneys’ offices defend ICE when detainees file habeas petitions in federal court, and several have said publicly that they cannot keep up.

In Western Washington, Acting U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd wrote to the court on Oct. 26 that his office “does not have the available resources” to appear in every one of the dozens of immigration habeas petitions filed each week. Since then, a Seattle judge has freed a detainee whose petition went unopposed, and at least one other petition has been granted the same way. In Colorado, the U.S. Attorney’s Office agreed with the court clerk that detainees must be released if the government does not answer within seven days, and judges have since examined breakdowns in how release orders reach ICE. Earlier this year, the U.S. attorneys covering Texas told the Fifth Circuit that the flood of detention litigation had forced them to divert prosecutors from other work, Bloomberg Law reported.

Monday’s instructions add pressure on those same offices. Offices are being asked to set aside lawyers who can be moved elsewhere, and leaders were told more of them will be removed. Bloomberg Law noted it is unclear who would replace them. Neither Singh nor the department has said how habeas defense will be staffed, and no office has said it will scale back further. But two districts have already chosen to let some petitions go unanswered, and fewer lawyers would make that harder to reverse.

A run of departures

Singh’s warning came amid a wave of exits. Four Senate-confirmed DOJ officials have resigned since the midterms, according to Attorney General Todd Blanche’s announcements and reporting by the Associated Press and Reuters: Civil Rights Division head Harmeet Dhillon on Thursday, Nov. 5; South Florida U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones and National Security Division head John Eisenberg on Friday, Nov. 6; and Civil Division head Brett Shumate on Monday, Nov. 9. Bloomberg Law reported that Eisenberg was pushed out over performance concerns, and that legislative affairs chief Patrick Davis left voluntarily last month. Blanche said there is nothing unusual about people leaving after a midterm, and spokesperson Kiersten Pels called Bloomberg Law’s anonymously sourced reporting on departing appointees “click-bait.”

Shumate’s exit is the one most tied to immigration. In accepting his resignation, Blanche credited the Civil Division with affirmative litigation challenging sanctuary policies and wins against local policies he said endangered federal law enforcement. Last month, Shumate and Blanche announced that DOJ was seeking to revoke the citizenship of 40 naturalized citizens accused of concealing crimes, immigration fraud or other disqualifying information. The division also houses the Office of Immigration Litigation, which defends removal orders in the federal courts of appeals and immigration policies and detention in district courts alongside U.S. attorneys’ offices. The department has not said who will lead it.

Bloomberg Law’s Nov. 10 report on departing appointees describes a department where morale is split. Political appointees worried about their careers and about congressional subpoenas are looking for the exits, and some recent recruits rescinded job acceptances after the midterms. Another group, largely younger lawyers, is ready to fight the coming oversight. Rod Rosenstein, deputy attorney general in Trump’s first term, warned that with fewer Senate-confirmed leaders and the loss of experienced career lawyers, the department may not keep up with heavy workloads “and they’re going to make mistakes.” For now, Bloomberg Law reported, U.S. attorneys’ offices plan to keep their current approach, and the deputy attorney general’s office has not sent new enforcement memos to the field.

Dhillon’s resignation also touches immigration. Her Civil Rights Division led DOJ’s crackdown on PERM recruitment, including Cloudera’s two-year debarment, and its review of possible noncitizen voting. Dhillon has said the decision was her own and came before the election results. Her successor has not been named, leaving open whether those efforts keep their pace.

What to watch

Which U.S. attorneys leave next, and whether any are in districts with heavy immigration habeas dockets.
Whether more offices follow Washington and Colorado in letting unanswered habeas petitions be decided on the detainee’s papers. For petitioners, a notice of appearance on the docket is the signal that the government will contest the case.
Any DOJ action against sanctuary jurisdictions such as Houston, Austin or D.C. once new leaders take office in January.
Congressional oversight. Democrats take control in January and DOJ expects a wave of subpoenas, as incoming committee leaders prepare oversight of immigration agencies.

This article is for general information and is not legal advice.

Sources

Vasanth Vaidyanathan, Esq.

Administrator

Vasanth Vaidyanathan is an immigration attorney with over 20 years of experience focused exclusively on U.S. immigration and nationality law. He holds an LL.M. from California Western School of Law, San Diego and advises individuals and businesses on employment and family-based immigration matters, including H-1B, PERM, EB categories, and adjustment of status. He has also been a featured speaker at immigration seminars across the U.S. To reach Vasanth visit: https://www.vnathan.com/

Author's website Author's posts