Rep. Zoe Lofgren Holds a Hearing On the Executive Office for Immigration Review

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Rep. Zoe Lofgren Holds a Hearing On the Executive Office for Immigration Review

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, SUBCOMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION, CITIZENSHIP, REFUGEES, BORDER SECURITY, AND INTERNATIONAL LAW HOLDS A HEARING ON THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR IMMIGRATION REVIEW

JUNE 17, 2010

SPEAKERS: REP. ZOE LOFGREN, D-CALIF. CHAIRWOMAN REP. LUIS V. GUTIERREZ, D-ILL. REP. HOWARD L. BERMAN, D-CALIF. REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE, D-TEXAS REP. MAXINE WATERS, D-CALIF. RES. COMMISSIONER PEDRO PIERLUISI, D-P.R. REP. CHARLIE GONZALEZ, D-TEXAS REP. BILL DELAHUNT, D-MASS. REP. LINDA T. SANCHEZ, D-CALIF. REP. ANTHONY WEINER, D-N.Y. REP. JOHN CONYERS JR., D-MICH. EX OFFICIO

REP. STEVE KING, R-IOWA RANKING MEMBER REP. GREGG HARPER, R-MISS. REP. ELTON GALLEGLY, R-CALIF. REP. DAN LUNGREN, R-CALIF. REP. TED POE, R-TEXAS REP. JASON CHAFFETZ, R-UTAH REP. LAMAR SMITH, R-TEXAS EX OFFICIO

WITNESSES: DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL JUAN OSUNA, OFFICE OF IMMIGRATION LITIGATION

KAREN GRISEZ, CHAIRWOMAN, COMMISSION ON IMMIGRATION, AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION

RUSSELL WHEELER, PRESIDENT, GOVERNANCE INSTITUTE

DANA LEIGH MARKS, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF IMMIGRATION JUDGES

MARK H. METCALF, FORMER IMMIGRATION JUDGE, LANCASTER, KENTUCKY

[*] LOFGREN: This hearing on -- of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law will come to order.

I'd like to welcome our witnesses, members of the subcommittee and everyone who has joined us today to explore the Immigration Subcommittee's oversight hearing on the Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review, otherwise known as EOIR.

The last time we had an oversight hearing on EOIR in September of 2008, we had just learned about the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility and inspector general's joint report on politicized hiring of immigration judges and other DOJ personnel that occurred from 2003 to 2007. I am pleased to hear that many of the steps have been taken to retool the hiring process to protect it from the possibility of politicized hiring in the future. I look forward to continued reports from the Department of Justice to ensure that we do not repeat that serious mistake in the future.

Today I hope to hear more about efforts to address the continued lack of resources at EOIR, training and supervision of immigration judges, improvements already made to the Board of Immigration Appeals and any additional reforms that could further improve the immigration court system.

At a time when resources dedicated to the apprehension of illegal immigrants have rapidly increased, there has not been a corresponding increase in resources necessary for the immigration courts to handle the influx of removal cases, and this has resulted in excessive backlogs and significant delays.

The appropriations levels for immigration and customs enforcement increased from 3.5 billion in fiscal year 2004 to 5.4 billion in fiscal year 2010. The Customs and Border Protection went from 4.9 billion in fiscal 2004 to 10.1 billion in fiscal year 2010.

These massive budget increases for immigration enforcement agencies mean many more cases for immigration judges, yet at the same time the number of immigration judges has hardly kept pace with the increased enforcement. In 2004 there were 215 immigration judges and today only 237. The backlog of cases has grown at an alarming rate from approximately 160,000 in 2004 to more than 240,000 cases as of March of this year.

Immigration judges do not even have the necessary and appropriate support staff to help deal with the increasing backlog. Unlike federal court judges, who have two to three law clerks per judge, the average ratio of law clerks to immigration judges is one to four. On top of that, newly hired immigration judges are only provided five weeks of initial training, despite the fact that judges may be hired without any prior immigration law or admi...

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