The Monitor - EDITORIAL: Improving US immigration courts

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By Unknown

The immigration crisis that is so polarizing our country, our politics and our humanitarian beliefs, is now a judicial crisis -- one manifested in outrageous federal court backlogs that are further compounding and complicating this issue.

Currently, the median length of time to dispose of a federal immigration case involving a non-detained defendant is 665 days (nearly two years); it's 71 days (about 10 weeks) for a defendant held in a detention facility.

So much can happen during that time. Many who are not detained get "lost" and fail to report for their court hearings. Immigration rights activists tell us these undocumented immigrants often are fearful of being deported and having their cases definitively ruled. For those detained, weeks in captivity can be emotionally degrading and physically and mentally exhausting, leaving them with too much time to fret and worry about their case outcomes. It can also negatively affect the mental development of children who are held with their mothers.

It's obvious our federal immigration court system must be reformed and streamlined. And therefore we praise the repeated efforts of U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Laredo who for the past two years has pushed to increase funding for more federal immigration judges and courts in order to help improve wait times.

Cuellar, a Democrat, sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. Last week, he managed to get funds inserted into the fiscal 2017 U.S. House Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill that would: Add 25 new immigration judge teams; create additional immigration court space; implement a new immigration court electronic filing system, and would enact performance measures for judges and their staff to ensure these cases move quickly and that taxpayer funds are well used.

The U.S. Appropriations Committee approved the measure and Cuellar told us he believes it will pass the full House floor by year's end.

These 25 new judge teams -- which each include a new federal immigration judge plus their support staff -- are in addition to the 55 new judges (and their staff) that Cuellar helped secure funding for in fiscal 2016. This would bring the nationwide total to 399 immigration judges -- the largest ever.

Given the current backlog of over 458,000 immigration cases, we urge Congress to exponentially increase funds and resources for more federal immigration judges and court staff in future years. Especially in Texas, which after California, has the second-most immigration cases pending, about 82,000, according to a Syracuse University study.

We also urge that the Justice Department swiftly fill all of the 55 "new" federal immigration judge positions that were appropriated with fiscal 2016 funds, yet as we understand it, there are still several unexplained vacancies.

For fiscal 2017, Cuellar once again worked with the committee's chairman, U.S. Rep. John Culberson, a Republican from Houston, to also add $1.7 million to upgrade the electronic systems for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the federal office responsible for handling immigration cases, which currently uses a lot of paper files. They also added $5.7 million for additional court spaces -- much of it will be renovated in current immigration detention facilities where judges will go to adjudicate cases to more quickly expedite proceedings.

"There are detention centers where they are not fully utilizing the space because the judges would rather have them (defendants) brought to them (in court,)" Cuellar said. "I say we spent money already to build this office space, and plus it costs a lot of money to transport them. Therefore we don't want to inconvenience you (judges) but you have to travel. That was part of the deal when you got hired."

We appreciate the tough, direct sentiment. And we applaud the additional language inserted into the bill that will require cases of detainees to be completed within 60 days and non-detained cases within one year. And that metrics are provided showing that the courts are meeting these goals.

That certainly is better than having defendants wait nearly two years -- some in costly detention facilities paid for with U.S. taxpayer funds -- and others on ankle-bracelet monitoring devices, as the backlog of cases mount, further adding to the rhetoric engulfing our nation about what to do with those who are here illegally.

As we wrestle with these issues, our country must reflect on what our Founding Fathers relied on: faith in humanity, our judicial system and our elected leaders.

Right now our faith in how well our judicial system is handling these cases is being tested. We must recognize those who push hard to make it better. Because, as Cuellar told us, immigration courts are the "root cause" of our nation's failed immigration system.

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