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  1. #1
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    CA: Study cites stress among busy immigration judges

    Study cites stress among busy immigration judges

    HOWARD MINTZ SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
    Published: September 19, 2009

    SAN JOSE, Calif. -- On any given day, Immigration Judge Dana Leigh Marks can find herself listening to a wrenching tale of an immigrant seeking asylum, fearing everything from torture to death if returned to his or her homeland. Or she could decide the fate of one of thousands of immigrants who find themselves facing deportation each year, some of whom have been in the United States for years, going to school, working and raising families.

    In a cramped corner office in San Francisco's financial district, the case files stacked on Marks' desk reflect the sheer volume of her task. The roughly 215 immigration judges in the country last year decided an average of more than 1,600 cases, dwarfing the workload of a full-time federal judge, who may have about 350 cases on the docket at a time.

    For Marks and other immigration judges around the country, it appears that all those stories and case files are taking their toll. In a study released this summer by University of California at San Francisco researchers, immigration judges, it turns out, are as stressed out and burned out as emergency-room doctors and prison wardens. The study also found that female immigration judges far more stressed than their male counterparts.

    As Justice Department employees, immigration judges ordinarily do not speak publicly. But they didn't hold back with the university researchers.

    One judge told researchers they have to "grovel like mangy street dogs" to convince top immigration officials they need more time to deal with the crushing caseloads. Another reported a "knot in my stomach" deciding asylum cases. And another told researchers: "I can't take this place anymore. What a dismal job this is!" The study does not entirely surprise Marks, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges. She is now using the findings to push for long-sought reforms to the system, including a proposal for the immigration courts to break from Justice Department oversight.

    "The depth and the severity is what was surprising," Marks said of the study. "It's gotten a lot worse a lot faster."

    Immigration courts have come under closer scrutiny in recent years as caseloads exploded. The number of immigration cases jumped from more than 282,000 in 1998 to a projected 385,000 this year, with only a modest increase in the number of immigration judges.

    (Northern California's immigration judges are based in San Francisco.)

    Federal appeals courts, which often review the work of the immigration courts, have grown increasingly frustrated with some of the justice dispensed. A San Jose Mercury News review three years ago found that a San Francisco-based federal appeals court was regularly overturning the immigration courts in the most important immigration matters it decided.

    A spokeswoman of the Executive Office of Immigration Review, which runs the immigration court system for the Justice Department, said officials are aware of the recent study and working to address its findings, which included recommendations to provide more resources to immigration judges.

    Elaine Komis, the review office spokeswoman, said 19 judges are being hired this year, and the department is asking for 28 more in 2010. And during a weeklong training session for all the judges recently in Washington, one segment included stress management. But the study's findings of widespread stress and burnout are cause for concern among immigration-rights advocates, who worry that frustrated, overworked immigration judges are too often giving short shrift to immigrants in their courtrooms.

    Experts such as Karen Musalo, a professor at Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco and a leading asylum lawyer, say there are ample numbers of judges who don't deserve sympathy because "there are judges that just shouldn't be there."

    Still, Musalo and others say many judges are well-intentioned but overburdened. In particular, department pressure to push judges to decide immigration cases quickly and erase backlogs has aggravated the tension in the system, according to experts.

    "We're driven by numbers, statistics," said Gilbert Gembacz, who retired last year as an immigration judge in Los Angeles after 12 years on the court. "The bean counters have taken over."

    For the judges and the system, the stress comes when the decision is made on whether an immigrant can stay in the country or must be sent away. The university study identified asylum cases as a leading cause of stress because of the stakes involved and the limited resources to fully examine asylum claims.

    "You're dealing with someone's life," Gembacz said. "I felt the stress disappear quickly when I retired."

    Added Marks: "We're dealing with death-penalty cases in a traffic court setting."

    www2.timesdispatch.com
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  2. #2
    ELE
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    no need to court cases.

    I don't know why our tax dollars are being spent so that illegals can plead their cases, if they are in our country they should be deported, period.
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  3. #3
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    385000 cases in immigration courts ? Is this tallied into to the tax payer cost of illegal aliens . And we pay incarceration ,judges,staff,and attorneys
    Hell I am starting to feel all the dang taxes I pay are one way or another going to illegal aliens .

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    Quote Originally Posted by airdale
    385000 cases in immigration courts ? Is this tallied into to the tax payer cost of illegal aliens . And we pay incarceration ,judges,staff,and attorneys
    Hell I am starting to feel all the dang taxes I pay are one way or another going to illegal aliens .
    DITTO!!!!
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

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