Wall Street Journal
By Miriam Jordan
July 28, 2014
LOS
ANGELES—A Justice Department push for immigration courts to prioritize
cases involving unaccompanied minors has raised concern among lawyers
and judges that the move
could undermine children's rights and lead to an even greater backlog
of cases.
On
Monday, attorneys here representing minors seized at the southwest
border said that clients weren't being properly notified that their
court dates had been moved up,
and they expressed concern that many minors wouldn't have enough time
to secure an attorney to represent them if cases are fast-tracked.
"Due
process means a fair process that enables a person to come before a
judge or adjudicator and explain what has happened, such that a judge
can make a decision to whether
the individual qualifies for the laws' protections," said Gregory Chen,
a director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "If we do
it in condensed way, it's rushed justice that results in no justice at
all."
In
the nation's immigration courts, individuals seized at the border
aren't guaranteed access to a lawyer. But judges often delay cases
involving children to give them
time to find lawyers, who are sometimes provided by legal-aid groups.
Those
who enter the U.S. illegally have a significantly better chance of
winning the right to stay if they have a lawyer, according to a recent
analysis by the Transactional
Records Access Clearinghouse, a project at Syracuse University.
Nearly
half of all minors represented by lawyers in immigration court in the
past decade eventually won permission to remain in the U.S. Nine out of
10 without legal representation
were returned to their countries, the analysis showed.
A
bipartisan bill in Congress sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas)
and Rep. Henry Cuellar (D., Texas) seeks to further expedite the
processing of unaccompanied minors.
It would empower Border Patrol agents to decide whether a child should
be sent home immediately or given the opportunity to a court hearing.
Judges would be required to make a final decision within seven days.
In
one case of accelerated review, the father of two Guatemalan minors who
recently joined him in Virginia received a notice in the mail on
Saturday telling him his two
daughters should be in court in Los Angeles on Monday, their attorney
said. Previously, they had been told the first hearing would be on Sept.
10. A judge can order those who miss a court date be deported.
On
Monday, the judge agreed to a request filed by the lawyer to transfer
the case to a Virginia court from Los Angeles, where the girls had been
temporarily sheltered.
A later court date will be set.
"In
the interest of moving these cases through as quickly as possible, they
are just ignoring the basic rules of due process," said Simon
Sandoval-Moshenberg, the family's
lawyer at Legal Aid Justice Center.
This
month, the Justice Department announced steps to more swiftly address
the influx of Central American migrants in the U.S. It said the
department's Executive Office
for Immigration Review would prioritize cases involving young migrants
to "enable prompt removal in appropriate cases, while ensuring the
protection of asylum seekers and others."
In
a letter sent last week to Senate and House leaders, the National
Association of Immigration Judges, said that "speeding up or truncating
the process creates an unacceptably
high risk of legal errors."
It warned that the effect could be a rash of appeals, creating even greater backlogs and delays in higher courts.
The
letter also noted that the court system is overburdened and requires
more immigration judges and support staff. It said that 228 full-time
immigration judges currently
handle more than 375,500 cases. The average time to decide a case has
climbed to 587 days, it said.
Meanwhile,
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) on Monday opened the door
to separating funding for fighting wildfires and Israel's missile
defense system from
legislation aimed at easing the border crisis.
A
bill from Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D., Md.) last week providing $2.7
billion to address the border crisis is expected to face resistance from
some lawmakers, and separating
the bill could ease passage of the funding for Israel and the western
fires.
President
Barack Obama has requested $3.7 billion in funding to address the
immigration crisis, a figure that includes $64 million for the Justice
Department to add immigration
judges and to provide children with lawyers and legal assistance.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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