ImmigrationImmigration hearings hampered by remote technology glitches, raising constitutional issues

Immigration cases in the southern United States are encountering increasing delays and hardships due to the necessity of having to rely on wireless and mobile technology in order to have proper communication in the courtroom.

As the Arizona Daily Star reports, technical glitches between courtrooms and the different detainment centers continue to slow down a judicial process that has been swamped with cases due to increased migration, including many unaccompanied minors, from poorer Central American countries such as the Honduras, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. As of last week, nearly 400,000 deportation cases were pending in the United States.

These cases are shared among just 230 immigration judges in fifty-nine courtrooms. The video teleconference technology provides coverage for areas where there are no immigration courts.

Some even worry that the problems with the systems in place, including interpreters using teleconference equipment to translate large statements at a time, may be used in appeals on grounds that it is unconstitutional.

“It’s not hard to imagine that televideo conference is inferior to face-to-face hearings,” said Dana Marks, the president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, “At what point that technology starts encroaching on due process is going to depend on each and every case, and it’s up to the judge to make sure it doesn’t happen.”

The Star cites the example of Heidy, a Honduran asylum seeker caught by the Border Patrol in Southern Texas. From Artesia, New Mexico, she testified about her experiences while a translator listened 2,000 miles away in Arlington, Virginia. When asked about how she would respond to verbal abuse from her husband, a drug-trafficker, she responded “I would tell him I was a woman and I was worth a lot and that I have rights.” That final part — about rights — was missed by the interpreter as a result of technical glitches, changing the tone of the testimony.

“We have to work with this groundbreaking technology,” said Judge Roxanne Hladylowycz, “The screen freezes if there are a lot of judges on it.”

Adding to the problem is the matter of time zones. Often, interpreters are so far away that they are operating on a completely different schedule, which can threaten the harmony of the case. In response, the Artesia courtroom has requested that interpreters in Denver take over the cases. Still, no stand-in interpreters within the courts.

“Artesia is shining the spotlight on long-standing issues. It goes back to the whole point that the immigration court system has been chronically underfunded for what is needed” said Marks.

“All of this is one more straw on the camel’s back,” she added, “Which one is going to be the final one? We are still waiting to see.”