National Courts Monitor

U.S. Seeking Lawyers To Help Border Children In Courts?

Updated: October 23, 2014

The U.S. Justice Department is “trying to find lawyers who are willing to represent” those border children facing immigration court and the Obama administration is working to improve that New Mexico detention center, according to Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who addressed the issues this week.

He also cautioned about considering the crisis “over” just because the number of Central American children arriving at the border has slowed. It could resume a higher rate, he explained. Some 400,000 cases are backlogged in the system, according to immigration court observers. Because immigration cases are civil, those facing the government are not guaranteed representation.

In a report, USA Today also notes that “… civil rights groups have sued the federal government over conditions at the Artesia center. The suit, filed in federal district court in Washington, says immigration officials are trying to rush deportations while creating legal hurdles to discourage migrants from seeking asylum and making it difficult for them to meet with attorneys.”

Read the USA Today report here.

Homeland Security Chief Says ‘Worst Is Over’ In Border Kid Crisis

by NCM Staff

Updated: October 23, 2014

Leave a Comment

In what’s being spun as good news, the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says “the worst is over” for the border kid crisis, with the number of child migrants picked up at the southern borders dropping to the lowest levels in a year and six months.

As reported by NPR: Detainees sleep and watch television in a holding cell where hundreds of mostly Central American immigrant children are being processed at a U.S. Customs facility in Nogales, Texas.

The New York magazine was among those scoffing at the downplaying of the crisis, writing that “… that’s right, only — only?! — 3,141 desperate Central American children found their way to the U.S. last month, down from the 10,000 our borders saw each month in May and June. Over 132,000 undocumented immigrants total have entered the U.S. in the last year.

The immigration courts backlog for the children is believed to be around 400,000 cases and advocacy groups are protesting both the lack of legal representation for many of the migrants along with a “rocket docket” policy that moves the children ahead of others awaiting their day in the Justice Department courts.

Read the New York Mag report here: DHS Chief: ‘Worst Is Over’ in Border Crisis

Immigration Court Rationing Retains Attention

by NCM Staff

Updated: October 23, 2014

Leave a Comment

The “Border Kid” refugee/immigration crisis continues to gain attention, with media coverage moving away from the sheer numbers (nearly 400,000 cases pending, for example) into the human interest stories. A good case in point is a Daily Beast online report from the New York immigration court. New York City, like San Francisco, is providing some legal representation assistance for the kids, which assists an array of non-profit and religious groups offering some assistance. But the DB points out that New York is second only to Texas in how many cases it must accept in the new “rocket docket” policy for the children.

The DB also notes that “… the U.S. government is not legally required to provide a lawyer for people going through immigration proceedings—even for young kids. So New York-based advocacy groups like the Safe Passage Project, The Door, the Legal Aid Society, Catholic Charities and the American Immigration Lawyers Association have sprung into action, rallying volunteers, interpreters and pro bono attorneys in a joint effort to help guide the Border Kids through the complex and confusing world of immigration court.”

The volume is staggering, with lawyers being given weeks to prepare cases they feel should take months. Read the report from the courthouse here: The Border Kid Crisis Hits the Courts

NYC Steps Up To Aid C.A. Immigrants

by NCM Staff

Updated: October 23, 2014

Leave a Comment

You can add the Big Apple to the list of cities providing representation for those Central American children seeking refuge in the United States. The NYC government has announced that it would place representatives at federal immigration court, joining San Francisco which is actually funding attorneys to represent some of the children.

The New York Times is reporting that judges are also stepping in: “… the hundreds of children who recently arrived in New York City from Central America have encountered a justice system that appears more forgiving than many faced by their counterparts elsewhere. In an immigration courtroom in Lower Manhattan, they have often met judges who have steered them through the legal process with a gentle hand.”

The NYT also says that “… more and more children face deportation hearings under an accelerated court process meant to deal with the influx of unaccompanied minors, health and education officials have begun offering advice just outside the courtroom, closing a gap that officials say has left children in limbo.”

Read the story here: To Help Unaccompanied Minors, New York City Posts Representatives at Immigration Court

Report: Immigration Wait For Non-Detained Average 900 Days

by NCM Staff

Updated: October 23, 2014

Leave a Comment

Hearst News is reporting that “… non-detained immigrants now face an average 900-day wait for their cases to be resolved in the country’s immigration courts, according to an official in the Executive Office for Immigration Review.” That is even higher than the previous average time of 520 days, which was based on data gathered by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse [TRAC] at Syracuse University and included some cases where people were detained in federal custody.“Detained cases, they try to move more quickly,” TRAC Research Center director Susan Long told Hearst. “Secondly, most of those don’t have attorneys, and therefore they get deported. Removal decisions move much more quickly than any one that has an application for relief.

The story also noted that “… nationally, as of Sept. 30, 2013, EOIR had 350,330 pending cases. That’s up 56 percent from the 223,707 cases pending on Sept. 30, 2009. Between 2009 and the start of the influx of unaccompanied minors from Central America at the U.S.-Mexico border earlier this year, the number of new cases received in immigration courts actually was in decline, EOIR’s statistics show.”

Read the story here.