Immigration Law

REPORT: NUMBER OF IMMIGRATION JUDGES DECLINING

By Greg Siskind

If enforcement activity is increasing, why do we have fewer judges than two years ago, especially when the Justice Department promised to increase the numbers? A Syracuse University study found

In summary, TRAC's analysis found that there has been no actual increase in the number of funded Immigration Judge positions since the Attorney General's proposals were announced, although some temporary positions that were first funded in 2006 prior to the Attorney General's announcement were subsequently made permanent. In addition, the EOIR acknowledges that as of July 2008 there are eight fewer Immigration Judges employed than there were back in 2006 at the time the Attorney General announced his plan for increased staffing. One surprising reason the number of judges have declined is that as of July 5 the Justice Department had left 28 positions ? 11% of the immigration bench ? unfilled.

The net result is that as the total number of matters handled by the Immigration Courts has increased over the last decade, today's Immigration Judges have less time to handle a case received by the court than they did ten years ago.

Full post as published by Greg Siskind's Blog on July 30, 2008 (boomark / email).