Dateline Arlington, VA, Jan. 12, 2017
The United States Immigration Court in Arlington, VA announced recently that newly appointed U.S. Immigration Judge Emmett D. Soper will be starting to hear cases in February. Judge Soper most recently was an Associate General Counsel in the EOIR Office of General Counsel in Falls Church, VA. Before that, he was an Attorney Adviser with the Office of Chief Immigration Judge. If my recollection is correct, he was also a Judicial Law Clerk in the U.S. Immigration Court in Buffalo, NY. Congratulations, Judge Soper! Congratulations Arlington!
Judge Soper is a “good guy,” and should be a great fit in Arlington. He will join Judge John M. Bryant, Judge Robert P. Owens, Judge Lawrence O. Burman, Judge Roxanne C. Hladylowycz, Judge Rodger C. Harris, Judge Thomas G. Snow, Judge Quynh Vu Bain, Judge Traci Hong, and Judge Karen Donoso Stevens, bringing the total number of Judges in Arlington to ten, the largest compliment ever.
Unfortunately, however, because the Arlington Immigration Court currently has only eight courtrooms with public access, Judge Hong and Judge Donoso Stevens have been largely “stashed in the back room” sitting in interior euphemistically named “TV Courts” — which also serve as chambers — hearing cases from other Immigration Courts. I am not aware of what docket Judge Soper will be handling and whether he will be “visible” or “hidden.”
Unless I’m missing something, which is sometimes the case, when all ten Arlington Judges are present, two will always have to be doing interior TV Court to other cities. Additional space has been located at 1901 South Bell, and my understanding is that the Court plans to open new publicly accessible courtrooms, obviously on another floor, this spring, thus enabling all Arlington Judges to work on Arlington cases, something that happened only rarely during my thirteen year tenure there.
The local AILA Chapter has also been informed that the Arlington Immigration Court plans to expand to sixteen Immigration Judges by the end of 2017. This would be a most welcome development, given the current docket with in excess of 30,000 pending cases.
Apparently, the new court design will include publicly accessible courtrooms for 16 Judges with another two interior courtrooms which can be used only for TV Court to other locations. The latter seems rather curious to me. Why take up court space with courtrooms that can’t be used on the Arlington docket? But, hey, I was only an Immigration Judge. What do I know about space and planning?
Obviously, expansion plans will depend on new Attorney General Jeff Sessions and also on whether the U.S. Immigration Courts will be exempt (as they certainly should be, but who knows at present) from the “hiring freeze” that President Trump has promised to impose when he takes office. Maybe somebody at EOIR already knows the answer. But, I haven’t seen any public announcement. Stay tuned.
PWS
01/12/17