Hiring of military lawyers as immigration judges alarms law experts

Move is high-risk and potentially unlawful amid Trump's deportation push since military lawyers lack immigration expertise

The Trump administration has started recruiting hundreds of military lawyers to sit as immigration judges, presiding over what are often life-and-death federal decisions for immigrants in the US, as experts warn the White House strategy is high-risk and arguably unlawful.

The judgeships are temporary, but renewable, and the government's goal is to fill an acute need for more immigration judges amid Donald Trump's mass deportation mission - which is now happening even as experienced immigration judges seemingly deemed to have fallen foul of the president's agenda are being purged from the courts.