Immigration Courts Under Strain
Published July 01, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT
Andrew Becker and Hugo Cabrera have written a very good story for TruthDig about the detention/deportation system that is stacked against immigrants:
While the nation’s understaffed immigration courts strain under a backlog that has grown to more than 200,000 cases, thousands of new border agents have been hired and the number of government attorneys who argue for deportation has increased by 35 percent, pushing more cases onto an already overburdened system.
As a result, cases often take months if not years to complete, leading to more immigrants being held in a growing network of detention facilities and jails. On any given day there are more than 30,000 people in immigration lockup.
This article is best read in conjunction with the recent study from UC San Francisco on the effects of stress and burnout on immigration judges resulting from sky-high caseloads and traumatic subject matter.
A new study finds that many immigration judges adjudicating cases of asylum seekers are suffering from significant symptoms of secondary traumatic stress and job burnout, which, according to the researchers, may shape their judicial decision-making processes.
. . .
The researchers found, through a quantitative data analysis of the 96 immigration judges who responded to a survey, that the judges’ burnout levels were higher than those suffered by hospital physicians and prison wardens.
. . .
The study notes that mental health clinicians have been interested in the occupational effects among those who work with trauma victims, such as immigration judges, since some victims, including asylum seekers, suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The researchers note that the occupational hazards of the immigration judges may include “compassion fatigue” and “secondary traumatic stress” (STS). Sufferers of STS may manifest physical symptoms as significant and frequent as victims of trauma themselves do.
. . .
“I am concerned that the stress and trauma in judges may make it hard for them to recognize trauma in the refugees whose cases come before them in the courtroom,” said Lustig. Lustig said that this can affect their future caseloads in one of two ways: they may become particularly lenient and grant asylum at a higher rate than they would otherwise, or they may just shut down and become desensitized to those applicants whose stories of persecution are genuine.
The distinction between DHS (immigration enforcement) and the DOJ (immigration courts) is often flimsy--both are executive branch agencies answerable to President Obama. These two articles indicate that the Obama administration's priority is not to secure just outcomes through the court system but to deport as many people as quickly as possible.
Also, Lena Graber has a good post about conveyor-belt justice for migrants charged in criminal court.
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Comments (15)
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David is an attorney in Philadelphia, PA, where he helps immigrants to the U.S. navigate the complex immigration legal system. Views he expresses at change.org are his alone and don't represent the views or opinions of his employer, Nationalities Service Center. The information contained on this site is intended for educational and advocacy purposes only.
After reading the conveyor-belt justice it is most likely that the majority of those immigrants have no clue to what is going on in that courtroom. Also, they probably do not realise the consequences that they will be jailed up to 20 years if they re-enter.
The Obama administration needs to shift the focus of this detention system. Tonight I had dinner with my friends from the Civil Rights group and I asked them why would Obama try to shift on the detention system and then shift back to the same policy's of the Bush administration.
They seemed to believe he is scared. Scared to take those government funds and cut ICE police and the detention system "jails and detentions spread out nationwide" because of the impact it would have on the economy.
They also spoke about the stimulus package and that their were jobs "contracts" that were given out nationwide with the ideal that jail contracts could be withdrawn; leaving us with balance in funds and jobs but for some reason he tried to shift and then he shifted back anyway.
Is fighting jails and the detentions...similiar to JFK trying to fight the CIA? How powerful are these buracracys? I'm not so sure but whatever is going on...it is not transparent.
Posted by Mary Pranzatelli on 07/01/2009 @ 10:12PM PT
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Wholesale justice. These show trials are just one more way in which the failure to fix our broken immigration system is eroding other aspects of our society. With Operation Streamline, the Bush Administration decided to throw prosecutorial resources into the prosecution of migrants coming here to find work. What are the opportunity costs? Heather Williams, first assistant to the federal public defender of Arizona, put it this way: Each day her office’s lawyers spend on misdemeanor border-crossing cases, she said, "they’re not talking about a drug case, a sex crime, a murder, assault or any number of white-collar cases—and the same is obviously true of the prosecutors. Immigration cases now represent more than 50% of all federal prosecutions.
Congress must take up comprehensive immigration reform and get it done. We need to give people who are coming here to work a work permit, not a jail sentence. Until we do, the theater of the absurd that played out in Tucson on June 18 will be repeated, day after day, all along the Southwest border..
Theatre of the absurd: kangeroo courts, conveyer belt justice, post-traumatic stress (and the migrants themselves?). If this isn't a good argument for CIR, I don't know what is. Great post, Dave.
Posted by a d on 07/02/2009 @ 04:43PM PT
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Analisa when I had dinner with my group on Wednesday (Yummy Thai food with peanut sauce like I told you) I asked one of my mentors their why do you think the Obama administration shifted focus and then shifted back?
She seemed to believe that in our economic downturn he did put additional jobs "government contracts" throughout our country nationwide in the stimulus package and probably with the idea that he would pull back on the "immigrant detention system" but she suggested that for some unknown reason "he became scared."
I asked why would he be scared? and she said that if the in-humane detention systems were cut back and those contracts would be removed nationwide he might be afraid of the economy and that certain bureaucracy's in power would not be easy to remove.
When I think about how crazy it is that our Economy is so fragile that government contract and cheap labor might rock the boat if they are cut; I keep thinking what a mess! Our taxdollars need to shift into jobs that repair our infrastructure. We can not build a strong nation off the business of tearing family's apart and enticing them to come in for cheap labor living in fear as a slave workforce underground society.
Their are ways to shift these government funds. There are bridges to repair nationwide. Our infrastruture continues to fall apart nationwide and as a nation our taxdollars are going down the drain. There are so many ways to shift these funds but Obama needs a push. Obama needs our help to shift the ground.
As a group we also came up with a statement that we all were in agreement with; "Obama is not enough." We need a grass roots movement and a strong one and that can only come from us. This can only come from an organized mobilization. FDR did not accomplish all of what he did simply because he wanted to. There was a movement behind him.
We have a great President but he needs a little push. He needs us to back him with a movement. "Obama is just not enough."
Posted by Mary Pranzatelli on 07/02/2009 @ 08:29PM PT
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Obama needs to do what is right for American citizens first and foremost. He is only beholding unto them not foreigners in our country illegally.
Posted by Mark Lindley on 07/09/2009 @ 09:54AM PT
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Another note, Obama should put the best interests of the majority of Americans first and not certain groups with an ethnic agenda.
Posted by Mark Lindley on 07/09/2009 @ 09:56AM PT
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Obama is putting Americans first Mark! He is working on all the problems that we face. Eventually he will get to Immigration Reform after he reforms healthcare and feels confident the economy is going in the right direction.
Posted by Mary Pranzatelli on 07/09/2009 @ 09:39PM PT
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It is the job of Pro-Immigration groups to stay on top of the President and his Administration to make sure he moves on the issue as well as many other issues.
Posted by Mary Pranzatelli on 07/09/2009 @ 09:43PM PT
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It is the job of Pro-Immigration groups to stay on top of the President and his Administration to make sure he moves on the issue as well as many other issues.
Posted by Mary Pranzatelli on 07/09/2009 @ 09:43PM PT
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Who isn't pro-immigration? And the spin continues.
Obama will not be putting the majoriity of Americans first if he signs the kind of CIR that many in here want.
Posted by Mark Lindley on 07/10/2009 @ 08:21AM PT
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Mark, The majority of Americans do not agree with you. If President Obama did not sign the kind of CIR that many in here want he would not be putting the majority of Americans first because the majority of Americans want the same kind of CIR many of us here want.
On this site many of us are trying to discuss the solutions to the dysfunction this broken immigration has caused by splitting up familys and the damage it has caused to children nationwide.
Posted by Mary Pranzatelli on 07/10/2009 @ 05:35PM PT
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If the majority wanted the kind of CIR that you want then why has no CIR passed so far? The majority shut down the phone lines last time with their objections to it.
It isn't in the best interests of this country to legalize millions of poor who defied our immigration laws. Obama knows it and will not support such a bill. It won't even make it through congress.
Posted by Mark Lindley on 07/11/2009 @ 08:16AM PT
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It is because certain politicians are afraid to move on the issue because they depend on voted in rural areas. There are many politicians that are holding things back "down south."
These rural areas do not represent the vast majority of the US population. "Texas" is an example that had a conservative voters base that suggested it wanted "Texas" to become its own country. This is actually quite humerous to the vast majority of American.
Posted by Mary Pranzatelli on 07/11/2009 @ 09:13AM PT
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Of course you have proof of this, right? It was Americans from all over the country that shut down the phone lines when the last CIR was attempted.
Posted by Mark Lindley on 07/11/2009 @ 05:38PM PT
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and we'll do it again.
Posted by Kurt Thialfad on 08/20/2009 @ 09:09PM PT
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No Mark...Actually it was all those ALIPACKERS that called the phone lines obsessively over and over again to make it appear that "Americans" from all over the country cared about Immigration....and yes Kurt I am sure that you will call the White house 400 times again because you have nothing better to do with your life.
Posted by Mary Pranzatelli on 08/20/2009 @ 09:43PM PT
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