Thread: Bill Calls for More Federal Judges

Bill Calls for More Federal Judges

April 25, 2007 09:04 AM PDT




WASHINGTON - With growing evidence that federal courts serving Southwest Border States are being overwhelmed with immigration cases, U.S. Senator Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) have embarked on a bipartisan effort to beef up the federal judiciary in New Mexico, Texas and Arizona.
Domenici and Cuellar have introduced companion bills authorizing the creation of 10 new permanent and temporary federal judgeships for districts whose immigration caseloads exceed 50 percent of all criminal filings.

The bill would implement the recommendations of the 2007 Judicial Conference for U.S. Districts, which calls for 4 permanent judges and 1 temporary judge in Arizona, 2 permanent judges in the Southern District of Texas, 1 permanent and 1 temporary judge in New Mexico, and 1 permanent judge for the Western District of Texas.

"The U.S. District Courts that border Mexico are overwhelmed with immigration cases. This is a crisis that needs to be addressed now. As we put more Border Patrol agents and immigration personnel on the border, criminal immigration caseloads are rising. Failure to address this crisis means we will create an even more unworkable situation that already involves mass arraignments and sentencing proceedings," Domenici said.


"Sen. Domenici and I worked together to ensure that the immigration caseload crisis in U.S. District Courts will be resolved in a timely manner. The American people overwhelmingly are calling for comprehensive immigration reform, and HR.1909 and Sen. Domenici's companion bill will contribute to that reform. It is our responsibility in Congress to make sure that we pass good, workable legislation to address the problems at our nation's international borders," said Cuellar.


The new Judicial Conference review shows an 11 percent increase in the number of criminal immigration cases in the District Court of New Mexico in less than three years. The District had 1,940 immigration cases in FY2006, or 71 percent of its caseload. In FY2004, these cases made up 60 percent of the docket.


Similar immigration-related increases were marked in the Southern District of Texas (3,668 cases, 70 percent), the Western District of Texas (2,324 cases, 50 percent) and the District of Arizona (1,924 cases, 59 percent.) These and other Federal court management statistics can be viewed at http://www.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/cmsd2006.pl

Domenici's bill (S.1192) is cosponsored by Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn (both R-Texas) and Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). The Cuellar bill (HR.1909) is cosponsored by Representatives John Carter (R-Texas), Michael Conaway (R-Texas), Charles Gonzales (D-Texas), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas), Ed Pastor (D-Ariz.), Ted Poe (R-Texas), Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), Ciro Rodriguez (D-Texas), and Heather Wilson (R-N.M.).




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Kyl-backed bill aims to reduce backlog of immigration-related court cases

Apr 25, 2007
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today joined Senator Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) in introducing legislation that creates 10 new permanent and temporary federal judgeships for the U.S. District Courts to deal with the backlog of immigration-related cases. Under the definitions in the bill, Arizona would receive five of the 10 new judgeships - four permanent and one temporary.

"Increasing numbers of apprehensions along the Southwest border have led to a tremendous backlog of immigration-related cases in the federal courts," said Kyl. "Adding more judges to the courts where the backlog is the greatest, as this bill does, will help alleviate the burden on our court system."

The legislation authorizes the creation of new federal judgeships in U.S. District Courts in which at least 50 percent of the criminal cases are immigration related. The bill implements the recommendations of the 2007 Judicial Conference for U.S. Districts, which calls for four permanent judges and one temporary judge in Arizona, two permanent judges in the Southern District of Texas, one permanent and one temporary judge in New Mexico, and one permanent judge in the Western District of Texas.In 2006, immigration-related cases in the District Court of Arizona reached 59 percent of all criminal filings (1,924 out of 3,265). The Western District of Texas had 4,687 criminal case filings, 50 percent were immigration related. The Southern District of California had 2,706 criminal filings, 54 percent involved immigration. The District of New Mexico had 2,750 criminal filings, 71 percent of them were immigration cases. These and other federal court management statistics can be viewed at www.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/cmsd2006.pl.

Andrew Wilder

Communications Director

Office of U.S. Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ)

730 Hart Senate Building Washington, D.C. 20510

Direct: (202) 224-7705


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