U.S. Immigration Courts “Overburdened, Under-Resourced”

The Brookings Institution held a meeting last Friday to discuss immigration and the U.S. court system. The focus was on the many issues in the current system and what needs to be done to improve it. Juan Osuna, Chairman of the Board of Immigration Appeals, began the meeting by saying, “I think that the most significant issue is basically the lack of resources. There are simply too many cases and too few judges to hear them.” He pointed out that the average judge in an immigration court hears about 1200 cases every year, compared to an average 480 case load per year for district judges."

In addition, Judge Robert Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit emphasized that "the issue is not only with the lack of judges, but with the poor quality of representation. “The problem of quality of representation is a severe problem in the courts… There are many fine immigration lawyers but all too often I see cases where the immigrants representation is substandard.” Additionally, he pointed out that only about 35% of immigrants have representation when they go to court. Katzmann believes improving the quality of representation is a critical issue to improve the immigration court system as a whole.

Will Attorney General Eric Holder work to fix these problems? Initial signs do not show him placing much attention on these overburdened and under-resources courts.