ImmigrationThousands of undocumented immigrants see court hearings delayed to 2019 or later
Thousands of undocumented immigrants seeking legalization through the U.S. court system have had their hearings canceled, and may have to wait until 2019 or later before an immigration judge hears their case. The surge in cancellations began late last summer when the Justice Department prioritized the roughly 60,000 Central American immigrants, specifically women and children, who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.
Thousands of undocumented immigrants seeking legalization through the U.S. court system have had their hearings canceled, and may have to wait until 2019 or later before an immigration judge hears their case. The surge in cancellations began late last summer when the Justice Department prioritized the roughly 60,000 Central American immigrants, specifically women and children, who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.
Immigration lawyers in cities that absorbed a large portion of the new cases, including New York, San Antonio, Los Angeles, and Denver, say many of their hearings have been canceled with little notice and no new court dates. Some lawyers fear the delay in hearings will put their clients at risk of deportation as evidence becomes dated, witnesses and sponsoring relatives become unavailable, and dependent children become adults. For some undocumented immigrants, more time will help immigration lawyers get evidence to build a stronger case for work permits, green cards, and asylum claims.
“Moving the docket back four years to some people will be devastating,” said Anthony Drago, an immigration lawyer in Boston. “To other people it’s, wow, four years in the United States.”
According to Syracuse News, before July 2014 only immigrants in detention were considered a priority for U.S. immigration courts, but under new policies, unaccompanied minors and families facing deportation also have priority status, regardless of whether they are in detention. The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) has not confirmed how many hearings have been canceled but the office believes more than 415,000 immigrants who are not in detention have cases pending. Lauren Alder Reid, legislative and public affairs counsel for EOIR said hearings are being rescheduled for 29 November 2019 as a way to keep cases on the docket, most, however, are likely to receive actual dates that may be earlier or later.
Denver immigration lawyer David Simmons said the current status of immigration courts is the worst he has experienced in nearly thirty-years of practice. “There is no maneuverability,” he said. “It’s as if we have no court at all.” Denver has thousands of non-priority cases with canceled hearing dates.
David Martin, a law professor at the University of Virginia and former general counsel to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (1995-98), criticized Congress and the Obama administration for not funding more immigration judges. “You fund more investigators, more detention space, more border patrol, almost all of these are going to produce some kind of immigration court case,” he said. “You are putting a lot more people into the system. It’s just going to be a big bottleneck unless you increase the size of that pipeline.”
Immigrant rights activists fear that most of the cases on hold will be pushed even further back if there is another surge of Central American migrants this year. “Starting May or June, there is likely going to be another surge of unaccompanied kids or families,” said Manoj Govindaiah, a lawyer for the San Antonio-based Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services. “Presumably this issue is going to continue.”
