Most San Diego immigration judges\u2019 dockets are shifting to one judge as the others hold virtual hearings to work through the growing number of cases at detention centers across the country, court observers and immigration attorneys say, raising concerns about delays and due process.<\/p>\n
One volunteer court observer said he\u2019s heard the judges reference the shift several times in court proceedings, particularly when scheduling future hearings.<\/p>\n
\u201cCases are going to get delayed,\u201d observer Ken Nollett said. \u201cThey’re going to have to either get squeezed into gaps in his schedule, or they’re going to have to get delayed out into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI see them in the courtroom setting up a case about four months out right now,\u201d he continued. \u201cSo that means all these people that had these cases in the fall, their cases are probably almost all going to end up more than four months from now, so it just drags out the uncertainty for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDelays are happening,\u201d immigration attorney Victor Hernandez said, noting he had already been reassigned to that one judge. \u201cI had about five hearings scheduled for Sept. 15, master calendar hearings, and all of them just got pushed back to February.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJustice delayed is justice denied,\u201d said Meghan Heesch, a former immigration judge who presided over a San Diego immigration courtroom until she decided to leave in March due to concerns about the system and due process after President Donald Trump returned to office.<\/p>\n
\u201cI prepare for my cases in advance. I know the issues,\u201d Heesch said. \u201cI’m familiar with the facts and the parties, and all of a sudden those are taken away and I get brand new cases where I don’t know what’s going on as much? It’s very difficult to prepare.\u201d<\/p>\n
Immigration courts nationwide are under the executive branch, part of the Department of Justice. When asked about the shift, a DOJ spokesperson sent a statement the agency has used in response to prior inquiries about immigration court proceedings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Biden Administration allowed millions of unvetted migrants into our communities,\u201d the statement reads in part. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cReducing the immigration court backlog remains one of the highest priorities for this administration,\u201d the statement continued. \u201cThe Justice Department is restoring integrity to our immigration system by hearing cases fairly, expeditiously, and uniformly, in accordance with the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heesch noted that San Diego\u2019s immigration court has one of the smallest backlogs in the country, saying the judges are \u201cextremely efficient\u201d in handling their dockets, and she wasn\u2019t sure why they were being asked to handle detention centers nationwide.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe it goes to hiring,\u201d she said. \u201cThe administration fired over 100 immigration judges, dozens of others resigned or retired, so there’s definitely a shortage of immigration judges and a vast increase in cases in the immigration court system.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo there’s probably just a crunch to handle the detained docket, and it is important. We don’t want people sitting in detention needlessly,\u201d she continued. \u201cBut the question is: why are so many San Diego non-detained cases being impacted? Why couldn’t they assign one or two judges?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the judges have worked very hard to keep their backlog under control,\u201d Nollett said. \u201cI guess the reward for that is they say, \u2018Oh, you don’t have that much of a backlog, we’re going to have you do all these detained cases.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Nollett and Heesch both raised concerns about immigrants receiving proper notice of any changes to their hearing schedules, advising anyone with an immigration case to call the Executive Office for Immigration review\u2019s hotline at 800-898-7180\u00a0or to search the agency\u2019s website daily to check on their case.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really affects all of us, because if we can’t count on our court dates and we can’t count on due process to happen effectively, then it really affects democracy,\u201d Heesch said. \u201cWe have functioning court systems all across the United States in state and federal courts. Why can’t the immigration court system get it right?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need an overhaul of the immigration court system in order to fix this,\u201d she continued. \u201cIt needs to be taken out of the executive branch and put in a new entity entirely to fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cErosion of due process for anyone is erosion of due process for everyone,\u201d Nollett added. \u201cIt’s your immigrant neighbors today, but don’t think it\u2019s going to stop with them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most San Diego immigration judges\u2019 dockets are shifting to one judge as the others hold virtual hearings to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[14,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-461291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-immigration","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}