The prioritization of the cases of more than 60,000 unaccompanied Central American children has had a negative side-effect for other undocumented immigrants.
Since the summer, thousands of people who are seeking legalization have had their hearings canceled without reschedule. The government is telling many of them that it may be 2019 or later before their cases are judged.
Some immigration lawyers are arguing that the delay will lead to deportations, as supporting witnesses disappear or die and dependent children become adults. Immigration lawyer David Simmons said that in 30 years of practice, he had never seen a deadlock like it. “There is no maneuverability,” he said. “It’s as if we have no court at all.”
One of his clients, Maximiano Vazquez-Guevarra, 34, from Guanajuato, recently won his appeal to become a legal permanent resident. But he still needs to appear in front of a judge a final time, and his case has been wiped from the court schedules.
Vazquez had been fighting to obtain legal residency since 2011, when he came to the attention of the authorities after his second driving under the influence charge. He lives in Denver, and is married to local. The couple have a 6-year-old daughter.
Vazquez’s brother in Mexico is dying of kidney failure, but Vazquez can’t leave the country to see him. “It’s sad,” he said. “I feel bad not seeing him, to say one last goodbye.”
The increase in cancellations began last summer when unaccompanied minors and families facing deportation were given priority status, along with immigrants in detention.
Hearings are being rescheduled for 2019 as a way to keep cases in the system, said Lauren Alder Reid, legislative and public affairs lawyer for the Effective Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). Most immigrants are likely to receive earlier dates for hearings.
University of Virginia law professor David Martin criticized the Obama administration for not spending more on immigration judges.
“You fund more investigators, more detention space, more border patrol, almost all of these are going to produce some kind of immigration court case,” he said. “You are putting a lot more people into the system. It’s just going to be a big bottleneck unless you increase the size of that pipeline.”
By GR Staff