Proceedings increase 26 percent, but immigration judges swamped
By LYNNETTE CURTIS
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
May. 30, 2010
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
The young Salvadoran, shackled at the wrists and ankles, had only one question for the judge.
"Am I going to be deported?" he asked through an interpreter.
"Not today, sir," Immigration Judge Harry Gastley told him. "Not tomorrow."
"Maybe never," the Salvadoran's attorney chimed in.
But chances are the young man who appeared for the first time Tuesday in Las Vegas Immigration Court will be deported, eventually. Once you enter removal proceedings through the federal Executive Office for Immigration Review , the odds are stacked against you.
And as the contentious debate over immigration reform and enforcement raged on, the number of people undergoing such proceedings locally shot up more than 26 percent last year, according to the review office.
Meanwhile, the local backlog in immigration cases has grown substantially. The Las Vegas court had among the steepest increases in the nation in backlogged cases between October 2009 and March 2010, according to an analysis released Monday by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse , a nonprofit group at Syracuse University that tracks federal law enforcement activities.
The local court, housed in several rooms on the second floor of a nondescript building near the airport, has been busier than ever lately.
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Las Vegas Immigration Court is not your typical courthouse. You won't find a single bailiff, for example. Security consists of a solitary security guard who mans the X-ray machine and metal detector at the top of a narrow flight of stairs that leads to the court. Cameras are not permitted inside.
There are no court reporters, either. Proceedings are digitally recorded and transcribed later only if there happens to be an appeal of a given case.
The building's four small courtrooms -- only two of which are in use at any given time -- contain a small number of wooden benches like pews, sometimes not enough seating to accommodate family members who want to be there for their loved ones' deportation proceedings.
More than half of those who appear in the nation's immigration courts go unrepresented. Typically, if you cannot afford a lawyer in immigration court, you are on your own.
Court officials don't always stand on ceremony. In order to begin court on Tuesday afternoon, Gastley had to shush chatting attorneys and inmates by shouting at them.
"Order in the court," the judge yelled while standing behind his bench. "I can't hear myself think."
Earlier, Gastley had told an immigration attorney not to bother donning a suit jacket for court.
"You don't have to get your jacket for me," he said. "You know how informal I am. It's why some of my colleagues don't like me."
Longtime immigration attorney Rolando Velasquez, who often appears before Gastley, described the judge as "cantankerous but very intelligent."
"He won't mince words," said Velasquez, who is advocacy director for the local chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association .
As a rule, the Executive Office for Immigration Review bars its judges from speaking to the media, so the Review-Journal couldn't ask Gastley or fellow Immigration Judge Ronald Mullins their thoughts on increasing caseloads and backlogs.
But a study published last year based on surveys of 96 U.S. immigration judges found their burnout level to be higher than that of hospital physicians and prison wardens.
The study, which appeared in the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, noted that judges expressed frustration over being "extremely overburdened." Its lead author was an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco.
The judges, who also completed psychological testing as part of their surveys, showed signs of "compassion fatigue" and "secondary traumatic stress" stemming from working with trauma victims such as immigrants who are seeking asylum in the United States because of violence or persecution in their homelands. Immigration asylum cases typically are closed to the public and the media.
The study recommended additional resources for the nation's immigration courts, including more law clerks, bailiffs and interpreters and giving judges more administrative time.
The number of immigration matters received by the nation's 57 immigration courts grew by 11 percent last year, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review. The number of matters awaiting resolution reached a new all-time high of 242,776 at the end of March .
Las Vegas Immigration Court dealt with 4,397 immigration matters in 2009, compared to 3,493 in 2008. Its backlog reached 1,583 in March, a 38 percent increase over what it was 18 months before and the second highest growth in backlogged cases nationally.
Those familiar with the workings of immigration courts blame the increases in part on changes in enforcement strategies of the Department of Homeland Security.
The Metropolitan Police Department in Las Vegas in late 2008 became one of more than 70 law enforcement agencies nationwide to have forged a partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which falls under Homeland Security's umbrella.
The local partnership, dubbed "287(g)" after the corresponding section of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, allows specially trained officers at the Clark County Detention Center to identify immigration violators and place "immigration detainers" on them.
The detainers let local law enforcement hold deportable inmates after they otherwise would be released so immigration officials can take custody of them.
Critics say such partnerships target Hispanics and could lead to racial profiling.
Las Vegas corrections officers placed immigration detainers on 2,722 inmates between November 2008 and May 2010. During the same time, ICE deported nearly 1,900 inmates referred from the county jail. Others still may be undergoing immigration proceedings.
Velasquez said he has noticed a marked increase in local immigration court traffic since the start of the partnership.
Experts also say backlogs have grown because of a dearth of immigration judges nationwide. A third Las Vegas immigration judge retired in December and the Justice Department has yet to replace her.
Still, traffic through Las Vegas Immigration Court has continued moving along relatively smoothly, Velasquez said, because the caseload is still comparatively small.
"It's not like it is in L.A. or New York," which in 2009 dealt with caseloads of 20,387 and 23,386, respectively.
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During a typical day in immigration court, a judge might deal with dozens of people seeking "relief from removal." Most have landed in deportation proceedings after being arrested on unrelated charges. Their options include accepting "voluntary departure" from the United States and fighting for asylum or an adjustment in immigration status. The former cases usually are dispatched relatively quickly; the latter cases can drag on for months or even years.
Tuesday afternoon, federal ICE agents led about two dozen shackled men and one woman into Gastley's courtroom for their "initial removal proceedings." They had been taken to court from the North Las Vegas Detention Center, where ICE rents beds for $105.96 per inmate per day.
The inmates ranged in age from about 18 to 60. Most were Hispanic, and about half required an interpreter.
As part of a new program through AILA, Velasquez volunteered to provide pro bono representation for the day for those who didn't have attorneys.
Some of the men requested voluntary departures. Others asked for bond hearings so they wouldn't have to stay in jail while fighting deportation. Many of the cases were continued.
"I don't have time to do a hearing today," Gastley told an inmate's attorneys.
To another he said, "I haven't read anything you submitted. I haven't had time to read it."
The judge gave the young Salvadoran a date and time for a bond hearing. The man indicated plans to fight deportation on the grounds that he was "in danger in El Salvador."
One of the last removal proceedings of the day involved a man in his mid-20s with a crew cut, whose case was continued to give him time to hire an attorney.
The young man slowly shuffled in his ankle shackles to the front of the courtroom, where the court's interpreter addressed him.
"I don't speak Spanish," the man told her. "I'm from Canada."
That appeared to delight Gastley, who began telling the young man about his many "ski trips up there until I got older and wised up."
"You know what my favorite place in Canada is?" the judge asked before describing a site in Montreal. "Next time you go back to Canada, look it up."
"Hopefully I won't be going back there soon," the man said with a smile.
"You're in the right place," Gastley said. "What is Las Vegas famous for? Gambling."
http://www.lvrj.com/news/case-backlog-postponing-deportations-95211529.html
