Washington Post: Backlog of hearings reaches all-time high in federal immigration courts

A Washington Post article highlights the bottleneck that exists in the US judicial system, specifically in federal immigration courts:


Backlog of hearings reaches all-time high in federal immigration courts

By N.C. Aizenman


Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, March 12, 2010; 11:08 AM

The backlog of deportation, political asylum and other cases awaiting a hearing in federal immigration courts has reached an all-time high even as a record number of judge positions remained unfilled, according to a report released today.

The analysis by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC, a nonpartisan research organization at Syracuse University, found that 228,421 cases were awaiting a hearing in the first months of the 2010 fiscal year that began Oct. 1, up 23 percent since the end of the 2008 fiscal year, and 82 percent higher than 10 years ago.

The average wait time for a hearing is also longer than ever: an average of 439 days nationwide, and as long as 713 days in Los Angeles and 612 days in Boston immigration courts. Virginia and Maryland are among the 10 states with longest wait times, averaging 478 and 430 days, respectively.

The complete article can be found here.