{"id":163933,"date":"2026-09-29T10:47:06","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T18:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/09\/29\/dojs-newest-brain-drain-fix-is-borrowing-marines-for-an-immigration-surge-that-might-be-coming-to-a-city-near-you\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T10:47:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T18:47:06","slug":"dojs-newest-brain-drain-fix-is-borrowing-marines-for-an-immigration-surge-that-might-be-coming-to-a-city-near-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/09\/29\/dojs-newest-brain-drain-fix-is-borrowing-marines-for-an-immigration-surge-that-might-be-coming-to-a-city-near-you\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ\u2019s Newest Brain Drain Fix Is Borrowing Marines For An Immigration Surge That Might Be Coming To A City Near You"},"content":{"rendered":"

At this point, the Justice Department\u2019s staffing crisis has its own expanding series of soap opera subplots<\/a>, and the newest one is in uniform. According to Bloomberg Law News<\/a>, a Marine Corps major on Thursday messaged military lawyers about openings for active and reserve officers \u201cof any rank\u201d to serve as special assistant US attorneys in the Southern District of New York, the Central District of California, and the Eastern District of California. The terms are 179 days, starting October 13 or later, and the email was pretty upfront about the job, noting the positions will \u201csupport areas with an increase in prosecutions associated with a surge in federal law enforcement efforts.\u201d The email continued, \u201cResponsibilities are expected to be immigration related.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well. About that surge\u2026 The administration hasn\u2019t confirmed immigration surges in any of those places, or any major cities since the waves of protest in Minneapolis and Chicago earlier this year. So this is very much giving what does the DOJ know about the fall schedule that it hasn\u2019t told the rest of us.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t DOJ\u2019s first trip to the Pentagon, either. Before landing on emergency jump teams<\/a> of rotated AUSAs, the department was already plugging holes with military lawyers, a move that (may well violate the law) and hasn\u2019t done much to stop the bleeding<\/a>. The 179-day term should also look familiar because it\u2019s the same length as the details the Pentagon approved last year when it signed off on sending up to 600 military lawyers to serve as temporary immigration judges<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The staffing problem is well documented at this point \u2014 DOJ has lost 21 percent of its attorneys, more than 2,600 lawyers<\/a>, and every fix so far has been some version of lowering the bar. The department suspended the one-year experience requirement, handed out $25,000 signing bonuses<\/a>, sent \u201cforward this to a friend\u201d recruiting emails, begged for AUSAs on Twitter, and then imposed case quotas on the prosecutors who stayed.<\/p>\n

DOJ spokesperson Kiersten Pels, asked about all this, said the department \u201chas a variety of Special Assistant US Attorneys who come from many federal agencies to contribute to DOJ\u2019s public safety mission,\u201d and added that it will \u201ccontinue to hire lawyers from every corner of the country who want to put those who prey on Americans in jail.\u201d Except the memo itself says the roles are in support of the administration\u2019s immigration policies and ICE is absolutely out here making its nut on arresting immigrants without criminal records.<\/a><\/p>\n

Earlier: <\/strong>DOJ Rolls Out A Case Quota For The Prosecutors It Hasn\u2019t Lost Yet<\/a>
The DOJ (Dis)Honors Program Is Having Trouble Finding Takers<\/a>
Pam Bondi\u2019s DOJ Lowers Hiring Standards After Driving Away Lawyers With Actual Experience<\/a>
\u2018Emergency Jump Teams\u2019 Are DOJ\u2019s New Plan To Paper Over Its Self-Inflicted Crisis<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of\u00a0The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of\u00a0Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email\u00a0her<\/a>\u00a0with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post DOJ\u2019s Newest Brain Drain Fix Is Borrowing Marines For An Immigration Surge That Might Be Coming To A City Near You<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

At this point, the Justice Department\u2019s staffing crisis has its own expanding series of soap opera subplots<\/a>, and the newest one is in uniform. According to Bloomberg Law News<\/a>, a Marine Corps major on Thursday messaged military lawyers about openings for active and reserve officers \u201cof any rank\u201d to serve as special assistant US attorneys in the Southern District of New York, the Central District of California, and the Eastern District of California. The terms are 179 days, starting October 13 or later, and the email was pretty upfront about the job, noting the positions will \u201csupport areas with an increase in prosecutions associated with a surge in federal law enforcement efforts.\u201d The email continued, \u201cResponsibilities are expected to be immigration related.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well. About that surge\u2026 The administration hasn\u2019t confirmed immigration surges in any of those places, or any major cities since the waves of protest in Minneapolis and Chicago earlier this year. So this is very much giving what does the DOJ know about the fall schedule that it hasn\u2019t told the rest of us.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t DOJ\u2019s first trip to the Pentagon, either. Before landing on emergency jump teams<\/a> of rotated AUSAs, the department was already plugging holes with military lawyers, a move that (may well violate the law) and hasn\u2019t done much to stop the bleeding<\/a>. The 179-day term should also look familiar because it\u2019s the same length as the details the Pentagon approved last year when it signed off on sending up to 600 military lawyers to serve as temporary immigration judges<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The staffing problem is well documented at this point \u2014 DOJ has lost 21 percent of its attorneys, more than 2,600 lawyers<\/a>, and every fix so far has been some version of lowering the bar. The department suspended the one-year experience requirement, handed out $25,000 signing bonuses<\/a>, sent \u201cforward this to a friend\u201d recruiting emails, begged for AUSAs on Twitter, and then imposed case quotas on the prosecutors who stayed.<\/p>\n

DOJ spokesperson Kiersten Pels, asked about all this, said the department \u201chas a variety of Special Assistant US Attorneys who come from many federal agencies to contribute to DOJ\u2019s public safety mission,\u201d and added that it will \u201ccontinue to hire lawyers from every corner of the country who want to put those who prey on Americans in jail.\u201d Except the memo itself says the roles are in support of the administration\u2019s immigration policies and ICE is absolutely out here making its nut on arresting immigrants without criminal records.<\/a><\/p>\n

Earlier: <\/strong>DOJ Rolls Out A Case Quota For The Prosecutors It Hasn\u2019t Lost Yet<\/a>
The DOJ (Dis)Honors Program Is Having Trouble Finding Takers<\/a>
Pam Bondi\u2019s DOJ Lowers Hiring Standards After Driving Away Lawyers With Actual Experience<\/a>
\u2018Emergency Jump Teams\u2019 Are DOJ\u2019s New Plan To Paper Over Its Self-Inflicted Crisis<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of\u00a0The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of\u00a0Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email\u00a0her<\/a>\u00a0with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post DOJ\u2019s Newest Brain Drain Fix Is Borrowing Marines For An Immigration Surge That Might Be Coming To A City Near You<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At this point, the Justice Department\u2019s staffing crisis has its own expanding series of soap opera subplots, and the newest one is in uniform. According to Bloomberg Law News, a Marine Corps major on Thursday messaged military lawyers about openings for active and reserve officers \u201cof any rank\u201d to serve as special assistant US attorneys […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":163923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}