From New York Times, I'm Michael Bobarrow.

This is a daily.

Throughout his second term, President Trump has been blocked over and over by federal courts,

except that is, for a little-known court system

that oversees immigration.

Today, my colleague, Nicholas Nehamas,

brings us the inside story of how the president

has systematically pressured the judges in that system

to carry out his agenda, and speaks with one of those judges

about the fallout. It's Tuesday, June 23rd.

Nick, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. Nick, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me.

Nick, talk for a moment about why in this moment you decided to spend so much time reporting on the judges of the United States immigration court system.

Well, I think that when most Americans think about President Trump's immigration crackdown,

they picture the shock and awe campaign that dominated the headlines for months,

the images of federal agents being sent into U.S. cities to do mass raids and arrest as many immigrants as possible. Right. Generated a huge amount of outrage consumed the country for weeks. Exactly.

But what we found is that while that was sucking up most of the attention, the administration

was also engaged in a quieter, much more meticulous

overhaul of a hugely consequential part of the immigration system. And that's the immigration court

system. That's basically the process that decides an immigrant's fate and can order them removed

from the country. Or decide to keep them in the country.

Yes, right.

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