The Department of Justice fired 20 immigration judges at the start of the weekend without explanation, according to multiple reports.

A union president told the Associated Press that the firings included 13 new judges who hadn’t been sworn in yet and five assistant chief immigration judges, while the two others were fired earlier this week. Politico also reported that the 13 new judges were the whole December class set to be sworn in amid a significant backlog of immigration cases.

That backlog is estimated at over 3.5 million cases, according to the Congressional Research Service.

All immigration judges fall under a sub-agency of the DOJ, the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which conducts immigration court proceedings and oversees a total of 700 judges. On his first day in office, President Donald Trump removed multiple officials within the EOIR, including former acting director Mary Cheng and former chief immigration Judge Sheila McNulty. Trump then selected Sirce Owen, who was previously an appellate immigration judge, as acting director of the sub-agency.

One of the judges fired on Friday slammed the firings from the DOJ as “political,” noting that all of them were appointed by the Biden administration.

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The firings come as Trump has pledged to dramatically shrink the size of the federal government by cutting wasteful spending. Most recently, the Office of Personnel Management met with agencies across the federal government and directed them to fire all employees still on probation a year or more after being hired.

It is unclear at this time whether the immigration judges will be replaced.