Los Angeles Times (Opinion- California)
By Scott Martelle
September 22, 2015
By
the end of July, 453,948 active cases were pending in the federal
immigration court system, formally known as the Executive Office for
Immigration Review. At the end
of August, the number of pending cases had nudged up to 456,644, or
about 2,700 cases -- an additional 128 cases each day the court was open
that month. Since October 2014, the start of the federal fiscal year,
the backlog is up 11.9%, and is double what it
was just six years ago.
Republicans in Congress ... refuse to look at the solution that they control: properly budgeting the court system.
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According
to a new report by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at
Syracuse University, which, among other things, analyzes federal
immigration data, those
pending cases have been open on average for 635 days. How long before
they are completed?
“As
of the end of August 2015, the court's pending workload included
421,647 scheduled hearings, with an average additional wait of 436
calendar days,” according to the
clearinghouse. “Note that this is based upon the average additional
number of days after August 31 that individuals will have to wait until
their scheduled hearing. Since the average individual has already been
waiting 635 days, the projected total time from
the date their case was filed until their hearing date is 635 days
(plus) 436 days, or a total of 1,071 days -- just under three years
(35.2 months).”
Which
means, if you extrapolate, people that federal immigration officials
started deportation proceedings against today will, on average, not have
a resolution until
September 2018. As the clearinghouse notes, some cases will move
through in a much shorter time frame. But others will take even longer
-- as much as 6.5 years.
It’s
not as if the judges are dragging their feet. The system is overwhelmed
and under-budgeted, with the judges handling about 1,400 cases a year
each, twice what administrative
law judges in other federal departments handle. As the Los Angeles
Times editorial board argued earlier this year, “the ramifications of
such an overwhelmed system are wide-ranging. People who have no legal
right to be in the country get lengthy reprieves
simply because the judges can't get to their cases. Those with
legitimate claims to asylum are left twisting in the wind. The longer a
case drags out, the harder it is to verify or refute an immigrant's
claim. And the judges face significant stress and burnout.”
There
is a solution: Money. Estimates range from needing 100 to 225
additional judges to clear the current cases and keep up with the
anticipated future caseload. So how
does that happen? Congress budgets for it. Except it refuses to.
This
is where Congress’ cynical approach to immigration enters the
spotlight. The Republicans in Congress bray about Obama’s immigration
policies and decry the high numbers
of folks here in the country without permission. But they refuse to
look at the solution that they control: properly budgeting the court
system that determines who has a legally recognized right to stay, and
who is eligible for deportation.
The
Republicans had hoped to stay away from immigration heading into the
2016 presidential cycle, but Donald Trump has made it a dominant issue
in the early going, which
only makes the party’s failure to address it all the more visible. The
Republicans could try to grab some positive headlines by moving
reasonable legislation forward, and by approving President Obama’s
budget request to increase the court’s capacity to handle
immigration cases.
But asking the political system to resolve a political issue seems to be asking too much.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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