Thread: $124M proposal to add judges to backlogged immigration system clears legislative hurd

$124M proposal to add judges to backlogged immigration system clears legislative hurdle

Eric Gay | The Associated Press
Detainees sleep in a holding cell at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility in Brownsville, Texas.

Posted: Thursday, May 14, 2015 2:10 pm | Updated: 2:41 pm, Thu May 14, 2015.
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Fifty-five new federal immigration judges would be added to the nation's backlogged immigration courts in October under a new congressional budget plan that passed a critical vote out of a subcommittee Thursday, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar said.

“This would be the largest increase and it’s historic,” the Laredo Democrat told The Monitor in an exclusive interview after learning from congressional leaders that the funding appears secure. “Right now, the backlog is just tremendous so this will allow us to have hearings before the judges on a much faster pace so we can get rid of the backlog.”

Cuellar, whose district extends across Starr County and into western Hidalgo County, requested $124 million for 55 new judges plus “judge teams,” specifically asking for judges to be hired along the Southwest border, including the Rio Grande Valley.

Nationwide, there are 59 federal immigration courts and 241 immigration judges, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, an arm of the Department of Justice that oversees immigration courts.

Current wait times for an immigration hearing stretch 900 days — nearly two and a half years.

The funds are being requested through the House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science Subcommittee, chaired by U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston.

Cuellar said Culberson told him Thursday morning that the request has passed the subcommittee. The next step is for a full committee hearing of the House Appropriations Committee and a final vote by all representatives.

But once language is approved by a subcommittee and put into an appropriations measure, “99.9 percent of the time it passes,” Cuellar said.

“It’s a victory. I feel extremely excited,” Cuellar said. “I think this will bring fairness to the system, in a sense. Everyone talks about adding Border Patrol, Border Patrol, Border Patrol, but if you just have detentions then you are just adding to the backlog.”

http://www.themonitor.com/news/immig...c8c1f2f07.html

I can foresee army recruiting offices being opened next door to immigration courts.

Well done! The "judge teams" on the Southern Border should really be able to clock them out efficiently. Border Patrol can haul them straight to the Judge Teams.

If we don't enact Universal E-Verify, we're wasting our time and our money. Most illegals sneak in, to get better jobs of better pay for the jobs that they do at home. As long as there is no real penalty for sneaking in - and having to stay at an illegals motel for a night or two doesn't sound like much of a penalty - these folks will continue to sneak in until they are successful.
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Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Originally Posted by vistalad

If we don't enact Universal E-Verify, we're wasting our time and our money. Most illegals sneak in, to get better jobs of better pay for the jobs that they do at home. As long as there is no real penalty for sneaking in - and having to stay at an illegals motel for a night or two doesn't sound like much of a penalty - these folks will continue to sneak in until they are successful.
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Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Yes, there's much more to be done on other fronts, but this will at least deal with at least part of the back-log. I prefer another way to do it which would be to pass Trey Gowdy's bill and amend it to include the rights of states to use their state courts to process deportations that violated either their own state immigration laws or federal immigration laws, the same way state courts have no problems with processing drug offenders. In the case of illegal aliens, it's a very simple matter, no documents, no stay = deportation, right away.

And of course, the ideal immediate solution is at least a 10 Year Moratorium on Immigration so that there is no vehicle for converting an illegal alien to a permitted resident on any level. This gives us time to stop illegal immigration, remove illegal aliens from the country and reset the system so what's happened with regard to both illegal and this massive legal immigration never happens again in the United States.