Immigration cases delayed by backlog

A national backlog of about 400,000 immigration cases is hitting Southern Nevada hard and placing families in limbo, according to immigration attorneys and organizations involved in the issue.

As of Aug. 31, 3,872 pending cases were before Las Vegas immigration court, according to Kathryn Mattingly, spokeswoman for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the nation’s immigration court system for the U.S. Department of Justice. She said the national caseload, which dates back years, is tied to Department of Homeland Security enforcement and removal activities.

Another factor is hindering the progress of local immigration cases. Las Vegas Immigration Court traditionally has three immigration judges, said Judge Dana Marks, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges. Currently, the court is down to one judge and may remain that way indefinitely. The Justice Department hasn’t been proactive in hiring ahead of retirements, and Congress hasn’t provided adequate funding for immigration court, according to Marks.

“To hear that there are that many families in limbo waiting for their immigration application and status to be adjudicated can only cause a hardship on the families, where they are left in a situation of not knowing what the future holds for them,” said Tod Story, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada.

The case backlog has fueled a growing “frustration” for the families involved and the lawyers who represent them, said Wendy Feliz, spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C.-based American Immigration Council.

Michael Kagan, associate professor of law and co-director of the Immigration Clinic at UNLV, said the backlog is problematic for all parties involved in the system. The UNLV Immigration Clinic has cases that started about two years ago and are not scheduled for a hearing until 2015, Kagan said.

“It’s bad for valid cases, it’s bad for the Department of Homeland Security if they want to move cases more quickly, and it’s not good for the court that’s overwhelmed beyond its capacity,” he said.

The National Association of Immigration Judges believes immigration courts should be expanded, Marks said. Judges are handling about 1,700 cases each. It would be more realistic to have 500 to 600 cases per judge, she said. Nationwide, immigration courts have about 227 judges.

The association also has argued for many years that oversight of immigration court should be removed from the Justice Department because it doesn’t make sense to have the court under a law enforcement agency, Marks said.

“That’s what has allowed us to get ignored and allowed us to get into this situation where we are so backlogged,” she said. “We should be an independent court.”

Kagan said the immigration court gives priority to cases involving people in detention. But there’s a lot of strain on judges because of the pressure to move cases, which means they don’t get to spend much time considering the decisions they are making, he said.

With just one immigration judge assigned to the Las Vegas immigration court, Story said, “There’s clearly not enough staff and resources in place in order to address the immigration needs in this community.”

For the Executive Office for Immigration Review to manage both incoming and pending cases, the office needs a sustained commitment from Congress to support the president’s request for resources, according to Mattingly.

“It is challenging to predict in any one year what next year’s caseload may bring, so we need a consistent source of funding that allows (the Executive Office for Immigration Review) to remain flexible in its hiring processes, permitting us to ramp up staffing when needed and consistently accounting for natural attrition of the immigration judge corps and other support staff,” she said.

The Executive Office is hiring up to 32 immigration judges with 2014 fiscal appropriations, Mattingly said. In the president’s budget request for fiscal 2015, the office requested funding for 35 immigration judge teams. Officials are also reviewing applications for up to 15 temporary judges.

But “placement determinations have not yet been made,” she said.

Reza Athari, a Las Vegas immigration attorney, said it has been a challenge.

“We have cases that have dragged on for a few years, even before Judge Roland Mullins retired,” he said.

People are questioning whether they should buy a home, get married or have kids, he said, because “they really don’t know what could happen to their lives.”

Athari said immigration lawyers were hoping Las Vegas would get a third immigration judge. But Mullins retired about a month ago, and now there’s only one.

In June, they were told Las Vegas was getting one more judge, but they really don’t know what’s going to happen.

“We go by the day,” he said. “Nobody knows the answers.”

Lawyers often have to re-educate themselves on the cases every time they go to court since some of them are so old.

“That has been a huge impairment of our ability to move cases along,” Athari said.

Kagan said Congress has put more money for enforcement at the border, but has not put equivalent resources into resolving the resulting cases.

Contact Yesenia Amaro at yamaro@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440. Find her on Twitter: @YeseniaAmaro.