The immigration courts are in a period of intense crisis and breakdown, at a moment in history when America’s immigration policy is being challenged and redefined. Congress has debated an overhaul of the immigration system since 2006, but proposals for fixing the courts have been largely ignored. The American Bar Association released a 510-page report in February, 2010, revealing that a total of 231 immigration judges hear more than 300,000 cases a year, an average of 1,200 for each judge, or three times the load of federal district judges. The ABA reported that judges state that they “feel overworked, frustrated, and feel like they are on a treadmill.” The judges often feel that their asylum hearings are “like holding death penalty cases in traffic court,” said Dana L. Marks, an immigration judge and the president of the National Association of Immigration Judges. As the judges’ backlog swells so that most immigrants must wait an average of two years for a hearing, the number of decisions appealed to the federal circuit courts has increased from 9 percent of decisions in 2002 to 26 percent in 2008, the report found, virtually overwhelming the federal courts. Due to lack of training and experience of immigration judges, the report found, their decisions “are often harrowing, haphazard and inconsistent.” The New York Times reported in October 2010 that the immigration backlog in the courts has continued to grow, in spite of calls for reform.
“America is famous for priding itself as a nation of immigrants, but the often shabby and sometimes downright abusive treatment that immigrants seeking asylum suffer in our nation’s immigration court system is a well-kept secret. The truth is that our government fails to hire prosecuting attorneys and appoint judges with expertise in the field or even adequately train them in the law and procedure. But this failure pales in comparison to the even greater scandal that the immigrants herded into these courts are often treated with disdain, disrespect, or even outright contempt by sworn officers of the law. The often needless, lengthy and costly pre-trial detention of individuals who usually do not represent any danger to the community is an everyday and shameful fact of life in our immigration system.”
Judge Grussendorf’s book views the dilemma posed by the nation’s dysfunctional immigration court system with sober compassion. He offers solutions both for immigration reform and reform of the courts; proposes a drastic overhaul of the country’s asylum system; and includes proposals for reform of legal education in America.