Litigation

Immigration-Court Backlogs Growing, Report Says

By Jason Barrett

The New York Times today reports on a recent study released by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) that finds a major backlog in the nation’s immigration courts.

The report finds that, despite a 2006 Justice Department recommendation to hire more immigration judges, the courts have seen a 19 percent increase in backlogs and 23 percent increase in the time it takes to resolve cases over the last three years.  The recommendation, made by then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, has been largely ignored, with only four new judges since the recommendation was made.

?Promises were made and promises weren?t kept, and there is real hurt,? said David Burnham, one of the co-directors of TRAC.

In addition to a lack of judges, staff shortages are  contributing to the backlog.  The report found that, on average, each judge is sharing a law clerk with three other judges, a marked contrast from the standard staffing assignment of multiple clerks to a single judge.

With immigration caseloads reaching record numbers, and an increase in Immigration Customs and Enforcement raids, it is difficult to see how these backlogs can be trimmed without additional staff.

Full post as published by The Gavel on June 18, 2009 (boomark / email).