INTENTIONAL DESTRUCTION: Heidi Boas @ Wilkes Legal Speaks Out On The Devastating Effects Administration’s Attacks On Justice In U.S. Immigration Courts Have On Individuals, Lawyers, Judges, Court Staff, & Rational Law Enforcement By DHS

 

 

The Government Shutdown’s Devastating Impact
on Immigrants, Judges, and
U.S. Immigration Courts
by Heidi Boas, Immigration Attorney
Wilkes Legal, LLC
February 4, 2019
As the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, the recent thirty-five-day closure of the federal government had a devastating impact on countless individuals, including immigrants[1] and U.S. Citizens alike. It also placed an unmanageable burden on our nation’s immigration courts, thereby increasing the heavy caseload already carried by U.S. immigration judges.
According to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), immigration courts cancelled nearly 43,000 hearings by early January, nearly three weeks into the shutdown, and that number continued to grow by roughly 20,000 cancellations per week. By the time the shutdown ended on January 25, 2019, the total number of immigration court hearings cancelled had doubled to roughly 86,000.
Many immigrants have already been waiting years for their day in court, and for some the shutdown-related delays will have a profound negative impact on their prospects for remaining lawfully in the United States. As the President of the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ) lamented in a recent letter to Congress, “individuals with pending cases can lose track of witnesses, their qualifying relatives can die or age-out and evidence already presented becomes stale.” For those applying for asylum, hearing delays can also cause emotional distress as applicants wait for the chance to be reunited with their family members overseas, many of whose lives are still in danger. Immigration court hearings cancelled due to the shutdown may be postponed until 2021 or 2022 or beyond, adding to the years-long wait that many immigrants have already had to endure.
Immigrants are not the only ones who felt the painful effects of the shutdown on our beleaguered U.S. immigration court system. In her recent appeal to Congress, the NAIJ President highlighted the “unmanageable burden” that the government shutdown placed on immigration judges and our nation’s immigration court system as a whole. Before the shutdown began, immigration courts already had an enormous backlog of nearly 810,000 active cases, and the shutdown only added to the strain on our overwhelmed and understaffed immigration court system by increasing the immigration court’s ever-growing backlog.
Ironically, the delays caused by the government shutdown frustrated the current administration’s efforts to aggressively pursue deportation against an increasing number of immigrants. In July 2018, Wilkes Legal highlightedAttorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision in Matter of Castro-Tum which signaled the Administration’s intent to actively pursue deportation against more than 330,000 individuals whose cases were in inactive status. Many of those cases that DHS re-calendared for court hearings were certainly delayed by the government shutdown, as well as those of many other immigrants whom DHS is seeking to deport.
The devastating impact of the government shutdown on immigrants, judges, and our immigration court system was highlighted by CNN, CBS News and the Associated Press. Hopefully, the recent end to the government shutdown will restore some degree of order to our immigration court system and allow those who have been waiting for years to finally have their day in court.
[1] Fortunately for many immigrants, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) offices remained open for business and most of their work continued as usual during the shutdown, as USCIS relies on immigration application fees rather than Congressionally appropriated funding. Many immigrants with pending immigration court cases, however, felt the painful effects of the shutdown on a very personal level.
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Thanks, Heidi, for reminding us of  how the Administration’s ongoing war against Due Process, fundamental fairness, courts, and our Government institutions adversely affects all of us, including DHS enforcement.

PWS

02-10-19

 

 

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