'Acting like the Gestapo': Former judge rips Trump admin

Dana Leigh Marks, a former U.S. immigration judge, has strongly criticized President Donald Trump's handling of immigration courts, warning that the administration's tactics have turned U.S. immigration courts into dangerous zones.

In an interview with The Guardian published Sunday, Marks, 71, said of the current climate: “I have seen my entire career destroyed by Trump in six months. I’m flat out terrified on all fronts.”

Marks retired from San Francisco’s Immigration Court in December 2021, leaving behind a widely respected legacy as a leader, mentor, and advocate.

She described ICE agents arresting immigrants outside their court hearings as “acting like the Gestapo.”

She urged immigration lawyers to warn clients. “If I were an immigration practitioner now, I’d tell my clients that they have to act like they’re in a war zone … Be prepared for any eventuality, because it is so random and so chaotic.”

Marks accused the Trump administration of intentionally undermining immigration courts. She said the government is “attacking” immigration courts “on all fronts” in order to prove they’re “dysfunctional” and thus justify eliminating them entirely.

She called the courts “canaries in the coalmine,” warning, “what’s happening to them is an illustration of what might happen to other court systems if we don’t stop it.”

Regarding a recent shift in how judges are selected, Marks called the administration’s use of military lawyers as temporary immigration judges “absolutely unprecedented,” cautioning, “I don’t want to slam military lawyers, but there is the concern that they’re being picked because there’s a perception that they will just follow orders.”

She characterized political intrusion into the courts as “a slow creep that now has gone to light speed.”

On the structure of the immigration court system itself, she said: “Deep in my bones, I always felt the placement of the immigration court in the Department of Justice was wrong. The boss of the prosecutor should not be the boss of the judge.”

She described how ruling “on precedent is the core of our legal system” is now being ignored, saying, “What kills me, as a lawyer, is that Trump turns everything on its head and blows through clearly established legal precedent as if it doesn’t exist.” And grimly about the administration’s reliance on disorder she quipped: “If you build by chaos, even if you’re right in what you construct … it’s going to crumble.”

Marks warned that rather than resolving backlogs, the infusion of military judges will “screw up the records” and “make appeals go wild.” She said that under the current pressure and lack of support, immigration judges are being asked to perform “death penalty cases in a traffic court setting,” juggling high-volume dockets, interpreters, courtroom tech, verbatim notes, and immediate rulings with minimal time or staff.