Thread: Central Americans pushed through immigration system as others wait

Central Americans are pushed through system; others see waits increase

By Lomi Kriel
January 25, 2015 Updated: January 25, 2015 8:48pm

Cindy Jimenez and her 2-year-old daughter left a downtown immigration courtroom anxious about what next month might hold. The 17-year-old came here illegally from Honduras last June to find her mother. The girl was among more than 67,000 unaccompanied Central American children to stream across the Southwest border in 2014.

Along with dozens of women and children who crowded into Judge Chris Brisack's courtoom, she recently had her first hearing and was told that her second would be in just 30 days. It's a startling turnaround for a clogged immigration court system that usually takes about six months between just these first steps, reflecting the government's effort to push Central American cases through the pipeline to deter other migrants from coming.

The aggressive effort, however, has ramifications for others in the system, which is facing a record backlog of more than 430,000 cases nationwide. Some immigrants' hearings have been delayed indefinitely, which can impede time-sensitive cases and jeopardize their chances of gaining legal residency. Mexicans, who make up the largest portion of immigration courts' caseload, saw their disposition times increase by about 13 percent to 533 days, according to a new analysis of court records by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

"The Central American cases have completely taken over the docket," said immigration attorney Salvador Colon.

Another attorney, Baldo Garza, paused briefly between finding two teenage clients in the court's overflowing waiting area.

"They're shoving all the Central Americans in front saying, 'Go home and tell everyone else not to come because you're going to be deported,' " he said"The immigration court here looks like a day care because there are so many little kids hopping around."

Situation 'very hard'

With no space to sit, Yudy Miranda stood in the hallway, rocking her 17-year-old sister's infant in a carrier while eyeing her two small sons as they awaited their recent hearing. They all had come from Guatemala to find Miranda last summer because she said there was no work in their isolated and impoverished mountainside town.

"I didn't want them to come," said the 32-year-old, who juggles two jobs at McDonald's and a taqueria in Humble. "But the situation in my country is very hard."

The TRAC analysis shows processing times for Salvadorans, Guatemalans and Hondurans - whose countries were the principal drivers of the surge of migrants last summer - dropped by about a quarter in the past four months as part of an expedited docket for recent arrivals announced by the Justice Department in July. Salvadorans have the shortest wait time, 291 days, compared to the average lag time of 560 days in Houston courts, the longest in the state after El Paso and one of the highest in the nation. As these cases have been expedited, the courts' overall backlog of cases nationwide increased by 5 percent since October, according to TRAC.

Kathryn Mattingly, a spokeswoman for the agency overseeing immigration courts, the Executive Office for Immigration Review, said it doesn't comment on "an external party's interpretation of its data." But, she said, the prioritization of recent arrivals "is having an impact on the non-priority case-load, causing such cases to take longer to resolve."

Judge Dana Leigh Marks, who heads the National Association of Immigration Judges, said switching to "last in, first out" is the wrong way to handle the influx of Central American children because it could endanger their right to due process. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has estimated 60 percent might be eligible for humanitarian protection under international standards because of the extent of violence in their countries.

Marks said fast-tracking these cases also negatively affects other cases in the backlog. Relatives could, for instance, become too old to qualify for a green card On the other hand, those who'd likely be deported in fact are allowed to stay longer.

Samantha Del Bosque, a staff attorney at Houston's Tahirih Justice Center, a nonprofit representing women and girls fleeing violence, said a Mexican woman she's representing qualified for a green card because she's a victim of domestic violence. It's been approved, and the legal process is complete but she can't receive it until what's usually a 10-minute perfunctory hearing in which the judge officially agrees to adjust her status. That's been rescheduled several times, and it's not clear when it actually will occur.

"For people with very solid cases, it's devastating," Del Bosque said.

Attorneys say most of their cases not involving immigrants who arrived here after May are being reset without even a later date.

"It's just rescheduled for some time in the future," said Raed Gonzalez, an attorney in southwest Houston. "I've never seen anything this wild."

More judges needed

Marks said Congress should hire significantly more judges as part of fully funding the beleaguered court system, which for years has languished as revenue for the agencies detaining immigrants - Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection - skyrocketed. The courts received about $304 million in 2013 compared to $18 billion for the arresting agencies.

Jimenez, meanwhile, doesn't know if she'll be able to scrimp together enough money to hire an attorney before her hearing next month. Her mother is being treated for a tumor, and all the family's extra money is going toward that.

But neither can the teen fathom returning to her hometown in Honduras, where she was violently assaulted by a gang who kidnapped and drugged her. No matter what happens, she's sworn to herself she'll never go back.

"I said, 'never again,' " she said. "It still pains me to talk about it."

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news...on-6039427.php

With no space to sit, Yudy Miranda stood in the hallway, rocking her 17-year-old sister's infant in a carrier while eyeing her two small sons as they awaited their recent hearing. They all had come from Guatemala to find Miranda last summer because she said there was no work in their isolated and impoverished mountainside town.

"I didn't want them to come," said the 32-year-old, who juggles two jobs at McDonald's and a taqueria in Humble. "But the situation in my country is very hard."

Okay, so 1 illegal alien has not 1 job but 2 jobs supporting herself and 2 kids, and now a sister and her kid. Pack 'em all up and ship them back to Honduras. If there is no work in the "impoverished village" they grew up in, then do what 90% of Americans do who grew up in small towns with no jobs for them, they move to another place where there are jobs. And if there are more people than jobs in your country, then may I suggest you withhold from breeding until you have a job and can feed 'em in your own country.

What is wrong with these stupid people?! A 17 year old who already has a baby, and she has no job, so she hikes all the way from Honduras to the United States to break US immigration law? And why hasn't someone already terminated Yudy's illegal employment and shipped her and her kids back to Honduras long before the sister and her spawn showed up? Your breeding and employment issues are not our problem, they're yours. Now go home and keep your legs together until you find a job that will sustain your stupid butts.

Jimenez, meanwhile, doesn't know if she'll be able to scrimp together enough money to hire an attorney before her hearing next month. Her mother is being treated for a tumor, and all the family's extra money is going toward that.

But neither can the teen fathom returning to her hometown in Honduras, where she was violently assaulted by a gang who kidnapped and drugged her. No matter what happens, she's sworn to herself she'll never go back.

"I said, 'never again,' " she said. "It still pains me to talk about it."

Okay, so you were raped. That is awful and you have our deepest sympathies. Women are drugged and raped in America, by the tens of thousands every year. They don't leave our country because of it. Your rape if it occurred and there's ample reason to be suspicious of that tale, is still no excuse at all of any kind for you to be here. And you know what else? It may be a valid reason for you to leave your "village" and move to another location in Honduras, but it's no reason for you to be in the US taking our jobs away from Americans, using our welfare or education or health care systems, taking up our time, and costing US a bunch of money. Now pack up your sob stories with your other belongings, get out of here, and stay out.

Here is the Honduras unemployment rate information for anyone interested in the FACTS:

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/hond...mployment-rate

That's right, only 4.5%. According to the this chart, the Honduras unemployment rate has been below 5% since at least before 2006.

Baldo Garza, paused briefly between finding two teenage clients in the court's overflowing waiting area.

"They're shoving all the Central Americans in front saying, 'Go home and tell everyone else not to come because you're going to be deported,' " he said

What a ridiculous statement and bold faced lie! The word is traveling rapidly around the entire Globe that America is wide open and welcoming illegal aliens. You cannot welcome and facilitate these illegal aliens then make false statements about deporting future illegals and have any believe that.

The American public does not buy that lie and neither will millions upon millions of future illegal aliens heading our way now!

W