Right To Fair Trial? Maybe, If You Speak English.
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The plight of immigrants awaiting hearings in the US has taken a turn for the worse in recent years, according to a study released yesterday that found immigration courts are backlogged to the point of being overwhelmed.
To give you just a quick idea of how bad things are, take a look at wait times that immigrants are subjected to: most cases are seen by a judge within 2-5 years, but some take up to a decade. For the immigrants involved, these long wait times make planning a future difficult and stressful to say the least. For some, this means jobs and families are in constant limbo as they wait to see whether they will be allowed to remain in the States. Others are even worse off, being held in a detention center for undetermined periods of time awaiting trial.
One would think that when they finally do see a judge they will at least have adequate time and representation to present their case, right? Wrong! The average that an immigrant has in trial is 72 minutes, and they do not have constitutional rights to a lawyer or a translator. Imagine having slightly more than an hour to make your case in a language you may not be familiar with in a legal system that is complex, to say the least.
This system is both an affront to immigrant rights and a drain on the economy, as it is American taxpayers who foot the bill for detaining these immigrants for such prolonged periods of time. Worst of all, the group responsible for reviewing immigrant matters, the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), has not established realistic goals or even taken into account suggestions to improve the system. Three years ago, the Justice Department warned that at least 40 new immigration judges were needed to avert a crisis. Following this announcement, the number of immigrant judges decreased rather than increased, even with additional funding from the Bush administration.
Immigration is at its highest since the 1920’s, and despite increased media coverage, it seems like not much is being done to manage this influx of immigrants. For the first time ever, illegal immigrants now outnumber legal ones. Any wonder why? Personally, I think I would take my chances with staying on an expired tourist visa or a dash across the border rather than waiting years for my hour in court.
Fortunately, change is seemingly on the way. Obama has promised to review and improve immigration policies—a stance which is now at risk due to increased concern about the economic downturn. What no one has seemed to realize is that a shitty economy is not gonna improve when Americans are paying for immigrants to not work while they wait in detention centers—a double cash loss.
