New Report on Immigration Courts Recommends Major Changes
The National Law Journal reports on a report released today by a pro bono team from the law firm of Arnold and Porter, which spent a year investigating the immigration court system and making recommendations for systematic improvement. The team was headed by Lawrence Schneider, who heads Arnold and Porter’s international trade practice, and was completed at the request of the ABA Commission on Immigration.
The report found major problems linked to the high case load immigration courts face, such as judicial burnout and ineffective appellate review. The report also noted unacceptable levels of bias from judges and disparities between judges in similar cases, raising important due process concerns. The report makes many recommendations, including making immigration courts Article I courts, hiring at least 100 new judges over the next three or four years, increasing the number of law clerks, and improving representation for those involved in immigration proceedings.
The report is being unveiled this morning, and if it becomes available publicly we will link to it here.
Edited to add: The ABA Journal just posted a story on the report that has some more details on where the recommendations might go from here, and the Executive Summary of the report is now available (pdf).