Like the 50 other judges fired within the last six months, the union said, the judges who received the most recent notices were not given a reason for the terminations. They were at the end of their two-year probationary period with the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), which is part of the Justice Department. Dozens of others took the “Fork in the Road,” a voluntary resignation program aimed at reducing the size of the federal workforce. EOIR declined to comment.

“I wanted to ride it until the very end,” said one of the fired judges, who spoke to NPR under the condition of anonymity since they are still employed by the department for a few more days. “I wanted to keep adjudicating, reviewing these cases. I figured as long as I am here, I can do some good.”

The terminations landed after Congress approved a mega-spending bill that allocated over $3 billion to the Justice Department for immigration-related activities, including hiring more immigration judges. The funding and additional personnel are aimed at alleviating the growing case backlog, which is nearly 4 million cases. Hiring and training new judges can take more than a year.