美国国家公共电台 NPR Immigration Judge Says Quota Will Cripple Already Overburdened System

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AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Immigration courts are so overwhelmed that their backlog¹ is approaching 700,000 unresolved cases. Unlike other courts, immigration judges report to the attorney general, and Jeff Sessions wants to impose quotas³ on them to tackle the backlog - 700 cases completed per judge per year starting in October. Judges learned about the quotas in a memo⁴ last week.

Joining us now is Judge Dana Leigh Marks. She's an immigration judge in San Francisco and with the union the National Association of Immigration Judges. Welcome to the program.

DANA LEIGH MARKS: Thank you for having me, Audie.

CORNISH: I think I've been reading that the average judge clears about 700 cases a year. So is this really that much of a difference for you all?

MARKS: Those figures that have been widely reported do not jive with the numbers that we ourselves have run internally. And one of the reasons why is that what constitutes a completion can be interpreted in different ways, and as statistics are maintained, it's not clear what is being included and what is not.

CORNISH: So everyone has a different idea of what it means to close a case, so to speak.

MARKS: There is no clear definition of what it means to complete a case. And in fact, there's a joke in the field that a case is not over until the respondent wins, or the case is not over until the respondent leaves the country because individuals can come back and move to reopen cases.

CORNISH: That joke is less funny when we look at the backlog - right? - because it's 700,000...

MARKS: Right.

CORNISH: ...Cases that are still open. And so what would this mean, having a quota², in terms of the day-to-day life in your courtroom? Does your workload⁵ change?

MARKS: I have a duty to afford every individual who comes before me due process. So I have to give that individual the amount of time they need in order to complete the case which is before me. What this quota is going to mean is that when I deny a continuance or I say that one more witness is duplicative and not necessary, the people before me are going to ask, is Judge Marks making a decision based on her legal judgment⁶, or is she concerned about trying to improve her own personal performance rating? When those kinds of concerns are raised, then appeals abound⁷. And that is going to cripple our already overburdened immigration court system.

CORNISH: At the same time, there is a backlog, right? And it's something that hurts the immigrants involved as well because their cases are in limbo⁸. What are your suggestions to get through it?

MARKS: You are absolutely correct that the backlog is unacceptable. We have the solution. The solution is simple. It's two steps. We need more resources, and we need them now. And we also need structural⁹ reform. Congress has recently taken a very important step to address the inadequacy¹⁰ of resources by just in the last budget cycle providing money for a hundred more immigration judges. That's the first step. But the necessary second step is to take the immigration courts out of the Department of Justice where they're currently placed. And the reason for that is the mission of an independent and neutral court is incompatible¹¹ with the role of a law enforcement agency. And...

CORNISH: That seems a long way away, right? I mean, this has been the way it's been structured for a very long time.

MARKS: That is precisely¹² why it could happen quickly. The issue has been studied. The concept of an independent immigration court has been endorsed¹³ by the American Bar Association, by the Federal Bar Association, by numerous other legal scholars and individuals who are knowledgeable¹⁴ with the system. And we believe that Congress could act on this very quickly and that they should because if they don't, we're going to continue to have these kinds of conflicts and threats to judicial¹⁵ independence and due process.

CORNISH: That's Judge Dana Leigh Marks. She's an immigration judge in San Francisco. She's also the spokesperson for the National Association of Immigration Judges. Thank you for speaking with ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.

MARKS: Thank you so much, Audie.