The logo for the Justice Department is seen before a news conference at the Department of Justice, Aug. 23, 2024, in Washington, D.C./Mark Schiefelbein/AP, FILE

The Trump administration fired eight immigration judges on Monday, according to an official with the National Association of Immigration Judges.

The judges who were dismissed worked at 26 Federal Plaza.

It came after an immigration judge who was fired by the Trump administration filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice, alleging she is a victim of unlawful discrimination.

Tania Nemer, a former immigration judge in Ohio, filed a lawsuit Monday claiming she was dismissed based on her gender, her dual citizenship with the country of Lebanon, and her previous run for local office as a Democrat, in violation of civil rights law.

Nemer was "abruptly fired" in the middle of her probationary period despite receiving "the highest possible performance," the lawsuit alleges.

"The lightning-fast, precipitous timing indicates that the incoming Administration`s decision was made - not as part of a careful evaluation of Ms. Nemer`s qualifications or fitness for office - but instead as part of a rushed attempt by the new Administration to target disfavored civil servants," the complaint states.

The former Cleveland judge is among the more than 100 immigration judges who have been fired or resigned through the Department of Government Efficiency`s "Fork in the Road" offer, or transferred out of immigration adjudication, according to the representing immigration judges.

The latest firings also come as the Department of Homeland Security is actively hiring "deportation judges."

In a post on X last week, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the jobs offer potential full-time remote work with salaries ranging from $159,951 to $207,500.

Immigrant advocates have called out the Trump administration for dismissing immigration judges who have experience in immigration law. There is also a backlog of more than 3.7 million immigration cases.

Nemer`s attorneys said in the filing that she was escorted out of court at the time of her dismissal, and that Nemer`s supervisor and the acting chief immigration judge both said they did not know why she was being fired.

"And to this day, the government has failed to offer any coherent and legitimate nondiscriminatory rationale for her termination," the lawyers wrote.

Shortly after she was fired, Nemer filed a formal discrimination complaint with an Equal Employment Opportunity office, which dismissed the case.

"The EEO office issued a final agency decision that dismissed Ms. Nemer`s complaint and asserted that Title VII does not constrain discriminatory dismissal against immigration judges because the statute purportedly conflicts with the Article II removal power," according to the complaint.

"That is simply not true," her attorneys said in the complaint. "Nothing in the Constitution gives the executive branch the right to discriminate."

The lawyers called the DOJ`s position that it can fire federal employees without a reason - despite civil rights statutes - a "breathtaking assault on a landmark federal statute."

According to the complaint, a DOJ official submitted an affidavit that detailed driving infractions involving Nemer, as well as two local tax cases from 2010 and 2011, which the former immigration judge alleged in the complaint that she had disclosed as part of a background check to become an immigration judge.

Nemer`s attorneys said in the complaint that the DOJ official "created the misleading impression that the prior infractions were somehow connected to Nemer`s termination."

The former immigration judge is asking a court in D.C. for a "declaration that the government violated her rights; reinstatement; and compensatory damages."