One of President Trump’s top immigration officials has revealed a key piece of strategy as the administration continues its work towards reducing illegal alien presence in the U.S. Daren Margolin, Director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), has shared that the administration will focus on improved efficiency in immigration courts as a way to facilitate future deportations.
Margolin was appointed as Director of the EOIR by the Trump administration in October, 2025. Prior to taking on the role, he worked as an immigration judge from 2020 to 2024. In an interview with Axios, Margolin said he retired as an immigration judge due to the overwhelming amount of backlogged cases and bureaucratic inefficiency. Margolin also said he was uncomfortable with the Biden administration’s handling of the border, calling it “a co-conspirator in treason.”
According to Margolin, official numbers vastly underestimate the number of illegal immigrants present in the country. Pew Research Center calculated the number of unauthorized immigrants at 14 million in 2014, which represented an all-time high after two years of a record-breaking flow in border crossings. In light of his experience, Margolin estimated the actual number could be as high as 25 to 30 million.
Margolin shared that the Trump administration will focus on expediting the legal process in immigration courts, which currently have a backlog of over 3 million cases. Increasing efficiency in immigration courts could facilitate deportation proceedings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), since many deportations require a court-issued order of final removal.
The massive burden on the immigration court system has decreased since President Trump’s re-election, with the backlog shrinking for the first time in 17 years since his return to office. This progress on the immigration docket has been due, in part, to a more secure border, which has resulted in fewer new cases being opened. As part of the strategy to increase efficiency, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), President Trump’s signature piece of legislation, included $3.3 billion in funding for new immigration judges and court staff.
