Thread: Number of Pending US Immigration Cases Climbs - Report

Number of Pending US Immigration Cases Climbs - Report

June 7, 2011

By Stephanie Gleason
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--A new report released Tuesday found that the number of backlogged federal immigration court cases in May 2011 is edging toward 300,000, an all-time high, representing a 48% increase since the end of 2008.

The caseload back-up has risen steadily since 2006 and has already grown 2.8% to 275,316 in the first four months 2011, according to the report released by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research organization associated with Syracuse University. The immigration court is responsible for administering federal immigration laws and is overseen by the Executive Office of Immigration Review, part of the Justice Department.

Juan Osuna, director at the Immigration Review office, in May asked Congress to approve the Obama administration's funding request so it can continue to hire immigration judges. His agency has hired more than 50 new immigration judges as part of a hiring initiative that began a couple years ago and resulted in a net increase of 36 judges, bringing the number to an all-time high of 272 in December 2010.

The increase in unresolved immigration cases relates to the increase in cases pursued by the Department of Homeland Security, which investigates immigration matters, Osuna said during the May hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Gregory Chen, director of advocacy for the American Immigration Lawyers Association said DHS "has dramatically increased its enforcement activities nationwide." While his group supports agressive immigration enforcement, Chen said DHS to could use more discretion in deciding who it requires to be detained or go to court.

"If there is going to be an increase in DHS enforcement," he said, "there needs to be a commensurate increase in" the budget for hiring judges.

DHS declined to comment on whether the agency is working to address these issues.

The average length of time cases have been pending is 482 days, according to the report, up from 467 days at the end of 2010. For some nationalities the wait can be twice as long. Immigrants from Qatar wait an average of 970 days and Armenia 896 days, compared to a wait of 275 days for immigrants from Cuba and 277 days for Cyprus.

California has the most pending cases of any state and the longest average wait time. Of all U.S. cases, 16% are in the Los Angeles Immigration Court alone.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-201 ... 12358.html

Related: http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-240342.html