As Calif. Immigration Caseload Grows, Courts Don't
As federal agents have increasingly focused their enforcement efforts on illegal immigrants in recent years, the number of immigration cases has increased substantially.
But the number of judges hasn’t, leading to bigger and bigger backlogs, both in California and throughout the country, reports the Los Angeles Times.
In Los Angeles, there were 27,200 immigration cases during the past fiscal year, an increase of more than 50 percent from the 17,800 immigration cases in 2000. Just in the last fiscal year, there has been a 40 percent rise in the number of immigration cases, the newspaper recounts. Yet only 23 judges are assigned to Immigration Court, compared to 21 in 2000.
There are concerns that defendants aren’t getting fair trials due to the crush of cases, and the situation doesn’t make their lawyers’ work any easier, either.
One day recently attorney P. Joseph Sandoval arrived 15 minutes early but found the court already packed with fellow counsel. “It’s frustrating for both the clients as well as the attorneys because the number of cases keeps increasing but the number of judges doesn’t,” he says.
