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Dole pushes for new court

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole has asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to bring an immigration court to Charlotte.

Although North Carolina is estimated to have the eighth-largest population of illegal immigrants among the 50 states, it has no court within its boundaries to hear cases. Instead, cases often are referred to the court in Atlanta.

"An immigration court located in North Carolina will have a positive impact on the U.S. government's ability to process and adjudicate immigration violations within the region," Dole, a Salisbury Republican, wrote in a letter to Gonzales this month.

The letter comes as the U.S. Department of Justice is reviewing sites across the country to establish new immigration courts. U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, a Charlotte Republican, has been pushing for a court in the state.

Dole told Gonzales that North Carolina's population of undocumented immigrants is estimated to have risen from 170,000 to 590,000 in the past decade.

"No other state presently without an immigration court is, in my view, as adversely affected as North Carolina," she wrote. "I am confident that your review of the evidence will lead you to the same conclusion."

Bonner can be reached at 829-4821 or lbonner@newsobserver.com.