Retired Federal Judge Addresses Immigration Problems
By Miriam Hernandez

Mar. 29, 2007 - (KABC-TV) - A new voice has joined the immigration debate: a federal judge who heard cases here in L.A., the busiest docket in the nation. He's calling on officials to fix a "broken" system, even as Congress debates the fate of millions of undocumented people. He saw the problems firsthand, in court.

Salvadoran immigrant Julio Osorio: "We are all here to do it right, work, hard pay our taxes."

Julio Osorio arrives with notification that today is to be his final hearing on deportation. He arrived from El Salvador 10 years ago, has a work permit, owns a home and is a key employee for a construction company. His fate will be dictated by laws he does not understand and a system one insider describes as broken.

Meet Bruce Einhorn, a newly retired immigration judge who heard cases in Los Angeles for 17 years. He couldn't give interviews while he was on the bench. Now he seeks to expose a system where he says the odds are stacked against justice.

"What is toxic to that work are the arbitrary deadlines for finishing cases imposed on good judges and those in their care by politiical bureaucrats and appointees in Washington," said Einhorn.

According to legal experts immigration is law is second only in complexity to the tax code. It changes with the ebb and flow of new immigrants. Yet Einhorn could face as many as a hundred cases a week.

"I think the office of Attorney General wanted to show the Congress and show the administration that it was cracking the whip and that judges were being made to act more efficiently," he said.

But to judges, it wasn't about bean counting, it was about fully and fairly hearing cases. Complicating matters, thousands of immigrants are exploited by what are called "notarios," a type of paralegal that is legitimate in Latin America, but not in the U.S. Einhorn says they mess up paperwork. They make wild promises.

It will either take extensive time for a judge to sort it out, or the immigrant's case could fail. Einhorn says low-income, law-abiding applicants are more likely deported; criminal aliens often get to stay.

"It is just the opposite. These people know how to work the system and if they make bond, they will be able to stay in the U.S. for years after a judge has ordered them to leave because of the appellate process," said Einhorn.

Einhorn argues that and more lead to rampant disregard for the law -- deportation orders widely ignored.

Miriam Hernandez: "You have a strong feeling they are going to stay anyway?"

Einhorn: "Oh yes. And an equally strong feeling that the Department of Homeland Security may never get around to picking them up."

Hernandez: "Can you imagine any scenario where undocumented workers are going to pick up and go back where they came from?"

Einhorn: "Some yes, most in my opinion, no."

Soon Julio Osorio may have to make that decision himself. Today though, a break. A scheduling mistake. His case is continued for five more months. To the relief of legalized family members, he will be able to renew his work permit for one more year, his status saved not by the law, but by a fluke.

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