Report Urges Immigration Court Overhaul

[sus 70]

Sorry all, I don't have a link to the actual report yet - but this is from a legal newswire I get - thought it was interesting

Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor the nation's immigration courts — both overwhelmed by exploding caseloads and inadequate resources — are ensuring fair decisions and due process for noncitizens, according to a top-to-bottom investigation of the system for removing aliens from the United States. A pro bono team at Washington's Arnold & Porter spent more than a year examining the removal adjudication system at the request of the American Bar Association's Commission on Immigration. In a report released this week, the law firm details its findings, including inconsistent positions taken by DHS on asylum and other issues, high levels of stress and burnout among immigration judges, inefficient circuit court review of removal orders and unsupportable disparities in decisions by immigration judges. The report also urges a major restructuring of the adjudication system by elevating immigration courts to Article I status and makes roughly 60 other recommendations, some requiring action by Congress, to address the myriad problems.