The backlog in the nation's immigration courts is at an all-time high. Immigration advocates expect it to get even worst under the Trump administration.
NEWARK--The rows of wood benches in Judge Annie S. Garcy's small courtroom are crowded, with barely enough room to sit.
The cases drone on in rapid-fire succession, giving it the feel of night traffic court. Many of those awaiting the judge do not speak English. Some have lawyers. Others do not. They get called, one after another, in a session that goes from early morning to well into the afternoon without a lunch break.
Just about all of those cases, however, will get carried forward for months--and sometimes literally years in the future. Garcy, 62, a transplant from Texas, seems apologetic as she sets a return date for one that won't be back before her until March 2018.
"You're going to be waiting a long time in this case," she says.
This is immigration court in Newark and the scene in Courtroom A on the 12th floor of the Peter W. Rodino Federal Building is not out of the ordinary. Courts handling immigration matters these days are overwhelmed across the country, with backlogs of pending cases now at an all-time high, say U.S. Department of Justice officials.
Through the end of January, there were 542,646 pending cases, according to the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review, or EOIR, and those numbers continue to climb. New York, the busiest court in the nation, currently has 72,344 cases on the docket. Newark was sixth among the nearly 60 courts, with 27,228 pending cases, not including the more than 740 cases involving those facing the possibility of more immediate deportation, which are held at the Elizabeth Detention Center.
"Our caseload is directly related to DHS enforcement activities," said an EOIR spokeswoman, referring to the Department of Homeland Security.
Despite the sudden explosion of hard-edged immigration enforcement under the Trump White House, though, the court backlog has been growing for quite some time.
Much of it dates back to the so-called "border surge" under President Obama, when tens of thousands of families and children fleeing deadly violence in Central America began pouring into this country. However, immigration advocates believe things will almost certainly get worse as the Trump administration expands its focus on undocumented residents, greatly increasing the number of those subject to immediate deportation, beyond violent criminals, or as the president is fond of saying, "bad hombres."
"It is a system that is already notoriously overburdened," said Lori Nessel, director of Seton Hall University School of Law's Center for Social Justice.
According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a Syracuse University-based research group that studies federal data, hearing delays on average have reached nearly two years among the nation's 58 immigration courts. Colorado has the longest delays in the country, at close to three years. In New Jersey, the delay averages 27.5 months.
Nessel, who teaches immigration law, said with the new administration's call for even tougher enforcement, widening the net for cases considered priorities for deportation, the system is likely to become unbearably backlogged, or force the spending for additional judges, new detention centers and hiring of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE agents, that she said "will come at incredible cost."
A Union City grandfather fights his deportation
Lawrence LeRoy, a Newark immigration attorney and former immigration officer, the the court intervals between hearings are getting longer and longer, with judges carrying 4,000 or more cases.
"It's an untenable situation," he said. "They have to triple or or quadruple the number of judges, which is not going to happen."
While there are 374 immigration judge positions currently authorized, only 300 are filled, and a federal hiring freeze put the brakes on additional hiring.
The president's proposed new budget, meanwhile, calls for $314 million to be spent towards hiring 500 new Border Patrol agents in 2018 and another 1,000 personnel for Immigration and Customers Enforcement, or ICE. It also contains another $1.5 billion for expanded facilities to detain those facing detention, as well as funding their transportation and removal, according to budget documents.
A mistake changes everything
The nation's immigration court system, administered by the Executive Office for Immigration Review, or EOIR, makes the decisions over whether foreign-born individuals charged by the Department of Homeland Security with violating immigration law should be ordered removed from the United States, or be permitted to remain on the basis of asylum claims or other relief.
In New Jersey, those cases include stories of spousal abuse. There are undocumented immigrants--some with U.S. born children--who have lived here for decades. Others with criminal charges resolved long ago suddenly are finding that past catching up to them, and there are individuals who are learning that one mistake can change everything.
One college student from Costa Rica who came to the United States as a 9-year-old was a so-called "Dreamer," with protected status under Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The program offers undocumented immigrants relief from deportation, as well as education and work rights. After his arrest on a DUI charge, ICE followed up and detained him for deportation.
LeRoy, who now represents him and did not want his client's name used, is trying to get him released.
"He made a mistake," the attorney acknowledged.
Now with even driving offenses being used to prioritize deportation cases, LeRoy said many undocumented immigrants not yet being targeted for removal are growing increasingly scared.
"I've been in this business since 1981 and I've never seen anything like this. The fear is just amazing," he remarked. "People are coming to me about the simplest things. They're terrified."
Joyce Phipps, an immigration lawyer from Bound Brook and head of Casa de Esperanza, a nonprofit group serving immigrants and refugees, said even legal residents have fears, with more thinking about applying for citizenship.
"They are frightened that Trump will take away their green cards," she said.
With fears of deportation, parents seek passports
Despite those fears, immigration attorney Daniel Weiss of Freehold said most being targeted by ICE have criminal convictions or prior orders of removal.
"There's almost always a conviction," he said.
Nationally, though, there is no shortage of stories of people being detained over what often appear to be the most minor of infractions. Daniela Vargas, 22, a native of Argentina who was taken into custody in Jackson, Miss., after publicly criticizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, was only recently released from detention after her case made national headlines.
She had qualified for a temporary reprieve from deportation under the DACA program, but her status expired in November.
Here in New Jersey, Catalino Guerrero of Union City is fighting his deportation and won a well-publicized temporary reprieve earlier this month after clergy leaders across the state--including the Archbishop of Newark--rallied to support his cause.
Guerrero, a citizen of Mexico, has lived in the U.S. for more than 25 years. Advocates say the father of four filed for asylum in 1992, but his case was denied and he was ordered deported in 2009. Arrested by ICE in 2011, Guerrero was granted a stay of removal and an order of supervision due to his poor health, but became fearful after the Trump administration widened the net of who can be detained and deported.
A date in the distant future
In Judge Garcy's courtroom in Newark, cases range from those seeking asylum, to those who have been in the country for a decade or more and are challenging removal orders. Among them this day are men and women from El Salvador, Jamaica, Guatemala and Ecuador.
The windowless room is hot and uncomfortable, but a portable air conditioner in one corner is turned off because it makes too much noise. A Spanish language interpreter simultaneously translates the proceedings in a low voice for nearly everyone appearing before the court--often enough that she has to stop at one point to change the batteries in the wireless headset she uses.
A Department of Homeland Security attorney sits to the left, representing the government.
The proceedings, known as master calendar hearings, are held to assess or update cases and schedule future court dates on the removal of an immigrant from the United States.
The session is like an arraignment hearing, where the judge looks to find out that relief is being sought, such as asylum, withdrawal of a removal order, or voluntary departure.
Garcy chides one attorney for not prepared, with a warning that the lapse threatened the situation of the client. She wishes good luck to another man she acknowledged having been in her courtroom before, as part of a long quest to get his green card and become a permanent legal resident. "Closer and closer," she says. "Maybe you'll think about making this country your country."
Marking down a hearing date for 2019, she wonders aloud about the fact that she is scheduling so far in advance. "My calendar is out to the distant future because of a shortage of immigration judges," she explains.
To another young asylum seeker, she says, "I'll see you when you and I are much older."
Not all are unhappy with the delays.
"Sometimes it's helpful. Sometimes we hope there are cases that will never be rescheduled," explained LeRoy. But he said the delays can still be extremely frustrating.
Garcy, who declined requests through an EOIR spokeswoman for an interview, moves through each case quickly, repeating warnings by rote on being prepared for what may come next, and showing up for the next hearing.
"If you are not here, we will proceed without you. If I make a decision in your absence, you have no right to an appeal," she says, over and over again. "Do you understand everything I've said to you today?"
"Si," says a man from El Salvador, also seeking an asylum hearing.
"Yes," repeats the interpreter.
"Perfect," responds the judge.
And then it's on to the next case.
Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
