The San Francisco Immigration Court closed for good on Friday, months ahead of schedule, leaving a lengthy case backlog and adding to an already yearslong delays for asylum seekers.

It’s the latest blow for what was once one of the busiest immigration courts in the nation, with cases from Bakersfield to the Oregon border. 

The closure follows a dramatic cutback in judicial staffing under the Trump administration, which dismissed over 100 judges throughout the country and more than a dozen in SF — many were fired abruptly over email.

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The Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees immigration courts for the U.S. Department of Justice, said it determined it would be “more cost effective (opens in new tab)” to move SF’s court operations from 100 Montgomery St. to its smaller counterpart 28 miles east.

A second location, 630 Sansome St., will remain open for hearings under the administrative purview of the Concord immigration court.

Bill Ong Hing, a University of San Francisco law professor who spent more than half a century representing clients in SF immigration court, said the closure certainly complicates things — but it’s nothing compared to losing so many judges. 

“The closure, it’s more symbolic of the Trump administration’s efforts to close off access to asylum seekers,” he said. “But the qualitative effect is negligible. The damage has already been done.”