A California immigration judge has filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Justice, alleging she was terminated because she is a registered Democrat, a woman over 40, fluent in Spanish, and had ties to immigrant-rights groups.
Kyra Lilien had been in the San Francisco Immigration Court since 2023, before transferring to the Concord Immigration Court in 2024.
Last July, Lilien was notified that her two-year probationary period would not be converted to a permanent appointment.
The 14-page lawsuit, filed this week, names the DOJ and Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche as defendants.
Lilien claims she met or exceeded all performance standards and received the highest possible ratings in her probationary reports for fiscal years 2024 and 2025.
According to TRAC Immigration data, she denied just 34% of asylum claims brought before her.
Despite this, she alleges her removal violated her civil and First Amendment rights.
Lilien’s attorney, Kevin Owen of Gilbert Employment Law in Maryland, told local station KTVU that Lilien “didn’t fit their mold” and that the actions taken against her were “impermissible and unlawful.”
“She didn’t fit their mold,” Owen said. “And what they did to her was impermissible and unlawful.”
The suit claims that immigration judges who were terminated or not retained around the same time were overwhelmingly female and points to internal memos issued by then-acting EOIR Director Sirce Owen in early 2025.
Those memos criticized “extremist leftist organizations” involved in illegal alien advocacy and Biden-era hiring practices that promoted illegal immigration and DEI hires.
Lilien, KTVU reports, “used to be program director for Jewish Family and Community Services, which largely helps Afghan refugees settle in the United States, and was the immigration program director for Centro Legal de la Raza in Oakland.”
The complaint also names nearly 30 other immigration judges from across the country who were similarly fired or not converted from probationary status, including 14 from the Concord and San Francisco courts.
KTVU reports:
Lilien, who declined an interview through her attorney, is one of at least 107 immigration judges fired under the Trump administration nationwide since January 2025, according to the National Association of Immigration Judges.
She is the first one in the Bay Area to sue over her lost job.
Three other immigration judges in the U.S., have sued over similar allegations, including in Los Angeles, Chicago and Cleveland. Owen said that another four other immigration judges are planning to sue soon.
The Trump administration has moved aggressively to reshape the immigration courts, removing dozens of judges hired under the previous administration as part of broader efforts to address backlogs and shift enforcement priorities.
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