Pentagon to provide hundreds of military lawyers to serve as immigration judges The Defense Dept. says “attorneys will augment existing resources to help further combat a backlog of cases by presiding over immigration hearings.”

Sept. 2, 2025, 5:45 PM EDT

By Erum Salam

Up to 600 military lawyers may serve as immigration judges temporarily at the direction of the Defense Department.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has approved groups of 150 military and civilian attorneys to be provided to the Justice Department, according to a memo dated Aug. 27 reviewed by The Associated Press . (MSNBC has not seen the memo.) The New York Times last week reported similar movement across the two branches that cited “more than half a dozen current and former officials.”

“At the request of the D

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