Thread: Immigration courts to break from Justice Department oversigh

Immigration courts to break from Justice Department oversight

Chicago Tribune
September 11, 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 be deciding the fate of one of thousands of immigrants who face deportation each year, some of whom have been in the United States for years, going to school, working and raising families.

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.

In a study released this summer by University of California-San Francisco researchers, Immigration judges, it turns out, are as stressed out and burned out as emergency room doctors and prison wardens. And the study found female Immigration judges far more stressed than their male counterparts.

As U.S. Department of Justice employees, Immigration judges ordinarily do not speak publicly. But they didn't hold back with UCSF 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's now using the findings to push for long-sought reforms to the system, including a proposal for the 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 across the country. 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.

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 a San Francisco-based federal appeals court was regularly overturning the Immigration courts in the most important Immigration matters it decided.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi- ... 9252.story

An interesting story a friend told me out of the immigration courts:

There was a time when agricultural workers got to apply for legal status, so thousands of illegal immigrants petitioned as agricultural workers. The judge asked if they picked strawberries. Of course they all had. Then the judge asked how tall was the ladder they used to pick strawberries. One after another described the ladders they used.

However, strawberries grow on the ground, so those who lied were shown the door to leave the US.

How would you like to be an immigration judge?

Everyday, someone else is saying whatever they think will keep them in the country instead of the truth.

What an ugly job, go to work to be lied to everyday.

Deport!

If they came here illegally its simple, send them home!!

So if the Justice dept is not going to be in charge of illegals cases who is Obama going to put in to do the job? Based on Obama actions it could be " Screw the American people and let all the illegals into America, Czar?" will be the King Pin.

Our federal government and all of the cronies masquerading as politicians stink! The one job that they are supposed to do and they flunked miserably! This is disgusting!

Then there are those that would trust our health care to these same idiots! What does that make them?

How many decades does it take to learn? Or is the learning curve being thrown out the window on purpose?

Throw all of the bums out! Commie bas*****!

When was the last amnesty? Be honest, how much thought went into it? There was no brilliance! Idiots on the street understood the implications then, and idiots now are not supprised with the results!

Quit making silk purses out of sow's ears!

I don't need no political hero, I need conservitive leaders!

Now I know why Obama hired 50 more civil rights lawyers.



DOJ to Hire 50 More Lawyers, Gear Up for Civil Rights Enforcement Drive
http://tinyurl.com/lwgfcn