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San Francisco’s main immigration court building is set to close at 100 Montgomery St.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lea Suzuki\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
The Trump administration shuttered the Bay Area\u2019s largest immigration court Friday, a move that\u2019s almost certain to worsen the nationwide backlog of asylum cases.<\/p>\n
The San Francisco immigration court at 100 Montgomery St, one of two in the city, had more than 120,000 pending cases. It was the site of numerous ICE arrests<\/a> and anti-ICE protests since President Donald Trump took office, including one incident captured on video where a protester was dragged by an ICE vehicle<\/a>.<\/p>\n Those cases will now largely shift to a court in Concord that was created two years<\/a> ago to help deal with backlogs in the San Francisco courts, which heard cases across Northern California. The Concord court itself is short staffed, with only five judges despite the Department of Justice stating it intended to hire 21 when the court first opened, and a backlog of 60,000 cases as of December.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n A smaller San Francisco court at 630 Sansome St. with two judges that hears the cases of people held in ICE detention will remain in operation.<\/p>\n The early closure of the 100 Montgomery court, which was expected later this year, will further slow asylum claims and other appeals for immigration benefits from people in deportation proceedings.\u00a0<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The Department of Justice stated in a press release<\/a> that the closure was based on cost-effectiveness\u00a0\u2014 the court rented a space in a Financial District skyscraper\u00a0\u2014 but former immigration judges have criticized the Trump administration for what they called \u201cdismantling\u201d of due process for immigrants.<\/p>\n The San Francisco court came under attack last year when the Trump administration started firing one judge after another, part of an unprecedented wave of nationwide terminations of immigration judges. By Thanksgiving, more than half of the court\u2019s 21 judges<\/a> had been fired. The judges are employees of the Department of Justice\u2019s Executive Office of Immigration Review.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an attempt to subvert the rule of law as it pertains to asylum,\u201d former immigration judge Shira Levine, who was fired in September, told the Chronicle. She now serves as deputy legal director at the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area.<\/p>\n Shuting Chen, who was fired in November<\/a> in the middle of hearing an asylum seeker\u2019s case, said the closure of the San Francisco court was \u201cretaliation\u201d against a court that had one of the highest asylum grant rates<\/a> nationwide.\u00a0<\/p>\n Former judges said they followed the rule of law in making each asylum decision. The court also had one of the highest rates of attorney representation for asylum seekers in the country, which research has shown<\/a> is correlated with a higher success rate.<\/p>\n