A new study by the Transactional Records Access Center (TRAC)
finds that the nation's Immigration Courts are becoming
increasingly backlogged.
Our country's 234 immigration judges received over 350,000 new
cases last year, almost 1,500 cases per judge. Coupled with
the government's onerous "case complete goals", this brings
incredible pressure on overworked immigration judges to issue
decisions.
As a result of the increasing backlog of cases, persons in
detention may have to wait many months to challenge the
legality of the charges against them or to have their
asylum and other claims heard before a judge.
The Bush Administration had promised in 2006 to add 40
new judges to the system, a fairly minimal amount. However,
only four additional judges have been added during the
past two and one-half years.
As a direct result of the "judge shortage", the backlog
has increased approximately 20 percent during the past
three years.
We link to the new report from our "Immigration Courts" page
at
http://shusterman.com/imcourts.html#1
"How can a system function properly when it is starved for
the critical basic resources it needs", states Immigration
Judge Dana Marks of San Francisco, President of the National
Association of Immigration Judges.
According to the TRAC report, a typical immigration judge
must conduct 69 hearings each week.
Judges are forced to hear testimony with little time to
consider exhibits and legal briefs, and then to immediately
issue oral decisions.
Legal research is increasingly delegated to law clerks who
are themselves in short supply. As opposed the Federal
District Court judges who each have their own law clerk,
four immigration judges must share a single law clerk.
If the government insists on continuing its misguided
"enforcement-only" approach to immigration, it is time
to put its money where its mouth is.
Or maybe it's time to consider other approaches to our
broken immigration system.
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