Washington — The Defense Department is considering authorizing up to 600 military attorneys to serve as temporary immigration judges, a defense official confirmed.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that at the request of the Justice Department, the Defense Department is in the process of "identifying qualified Judge Advocates and civilian attorneys for details to serve as Temporary Immigration Judges."

Parnell said the Defense Department attorneys would help with the backlog of cases "by presiding over immigration hearings." The Associated Press first reported the Pentagon's plans.

The immigration courts are struggling with a backlog of more than 3.4 million cases. But the plan to turn possibly hundreds of military lawyers into immigration judges comes

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