I have a couple large fig trees in-ground and there are many figs on each tree. There are also many new figs starting to grow. My wife tells me to remove all the small new figs to make the larger figs ripen sooner. Is this a good idea at this point in the season?

Yes she is right, also in future you can cut or break off the end buds of the branches after 5 to 6 pair of leaves and then keep nipping off any new growth that appears in area.
It works for us in colder area's.

Thanks Martin,
She just gave me a "told you so" after I read your reply to her. I'll go out there tomorrow and do some fig removing and some pinching. I pinched earlier in the season but I wasn't sure at this point if it would help.

Before noon today, I was busy knocking off smaller (about 25% of the fruits) to make sure that many of the remaining if not all will ripen before the first frost in our area about 50 days away. We seem to be 3 weeks behind normal year schedule because of many cold days with rain in the late spring and early summer.