Immigration Courts Paralyzed By Case Volume As 300 Judges Face 530,000 Pending Cases

As the President gets ready to sign a new immigration executive order today (see our note here: “Trump To Sign New Executive Order On Travel Bans Today: Will Exclude Iraq, Green Card Holders“), a group of overly burdened federal immigration judges are wondering whether they’ll get additional support to tackle their already massive caseload which is sure to only balloon further under Trump’s new rules.
As the Associated Press points out, there are 58 immigration courts in 27 states around the country with a total of 301 judges. The problem, of course, is that those 301 judges already face a mountain of 534,000 pending immigration cases which is likely to balloon even higher under Trump’s administration.
Of 374 authorized immigration judge positions, 301 are filled. Fifty more candidates are in various stages of the hiring process, which typically takes about a year, said Kathryn Mattingly, a spokeswoman for the Executive Office for Immigration Review.
In all, more than 534,000 cases were pending before immigration courts nationwide in February, according to a recent memo from Kelly.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on Mar 7, 2017.