The U.S. Justice Department says it will temporarily transfer immigration judges to six detention centers near the border with Mexico in an effort to put President Donald Trump's immigration directives into effect.
The department's Executive Office for Immigration Review said the transfers to four locations in Texas and one each in Louisiana and New Mexico will occur Monday. Judges were previously shifted to two immigration detention centers in California.
Trump's executive order on border and immigration enforcement issued in January says judges should immediately be assigned to immigration detention centers. Many judges work in courts where immigrants are freed before their cases are heard.
The president's budget proposal for the fiscal year starting in October calls for a 19-percent increase in immigration judges to 449 positions.