McCleskey granted asylum to just more than 72% of the asylum seekers whose cases she heard, according to TRAC data. That figure is significantly higher than the countrywide average, which has hovered below 50% in most recent years, but about the norm within the Bay Area court.
The three San Francisco judges with the highest asylum-granting rates have all been terminated in recent months, including Judge Shira Levine, who was fired last week.
Levine said that McCleskey was well respected and had navigated the difficult role of heading an immigration court in recent months with “competence and grace.”
“She truly was the glue holding the San Francisco court together as political appointees and ideologues in Washington were doing their best to dismantle and tear apart the court,” Levine told KQED on Tuesday.
Levine said she’s worried that the administration is trying to create chaos in immigration courts and get rid of people who “play by the rules.”
In August, the DOJ lowered the prerequisites to qualify for temporary judge positions, removing the requirement that candidates have prior immigration experience, and the following week, the federal government authorized 600 military lawyers to serve in those roles.
“The Trump administration, in terminating ACIJ McCleskey, is seeking to replace upstanding, experienced, knowledgeable, fair judges with people who possess none of those skills but people who may come from the military and will follow orders,” Levine said.
