Litigation

In Tennessee, An Overloaded Immigration Court

By Peter Hardin

There is no let-up in the parade of reports about overburdened immigration courts facing huge caseloads and long docket delays.

The latest comes from The Tennesseean. It reports that since one of two Memphis-based immigration judges was reassigned recently to Virginia, the remaining judge hears cases in a Memphis courtroom–while other cases are heard by other judges around the country, using teleconference technology. All told, the newspaper reported, the court is overburdened:

“The immigration court has such a heavy caseload that hundreds of people recommended for deportation haven?t even been given a court date yet. They line up monthly at local immigration offices, where suspected illegal immigrants are asked to check in until a court date can be set.

“After three years of stepped-up immigration enforcement, the overloaded court system isn?t keeping pace ? and observers say almost nowhere in the country is the problem worse than in Tennessee.”

A recent report for the American Bar Association documented a crushing overload for the immigration courts, and severe shortcomings (see Gavel Grab.)

On another front involving illegal immigrants, a federal prosecutor in Texas is defending some of the criminal prosecutions of illegal immigrants that a U.S. judge labeled fiscally wasteful.

U.S. Attorney John Murphy responded to Judge Sam Sparks’ questioning the practice of prosecutors seeking criminal convictions for  some illegal immigrants accused of illegal re-entry,  who the judge said had no significant criminal histories (see earlier Gavel Grab post.)

Murphy wrote in a court filing, according to the Austin American-Statesman, that three defendants whose cases brought Judge Sparks’ questions had defied authorities for a long time and had been deported more than once before their recent arrests on charges of driving while intoxicated.

Murphy answered that officials “have chosen less costly means of dealing with each of these defendants on prior occasions, and in response, the defendants have returned unlawfully and engaged in serious criminal conduct.”

To learn more about immigration issues and our courts, visit Justice at Stake’s issues page on the topic.

Full post as published by The Gavel on February 25, 2010 (boomark / email).