Henry Cuellar announces bill for more immigration judges

Congressman Henry Cuellar announced that the upcoming House of Representatives Budget Bill includes a proposal to hire at least 100 new immigration judge teams.

Congressman Cuellar

The backlog of active cases in the federal immigration courts in the US, which currently stands at almost 692,000, could be about to be eased, thanks to the addition of new help.

“Increasing the number of judges to process immigration cases is a common sense solution that should appeal to everyone, no matter how you feel about immigration policy,” explained Congressman Cuellar. “With a backlog of about 667,000 pending cases, almost half of which are asylum claims, our immigration courts are in dire need of additional judges to expeditiously adjudicate these cases.”

The new teams will include further judges, office space, and technology, as well as support staff. The Congressman issued a statement about the proposal in which he noted that the current dearth of available judges in the immigration system in the US has resulted in immigrants who cross over the border either being allowed to go free with a promise to go back to court at a later time or with them being held in detention for extended periods.

Cuellar points out that neither of these options is good for US immigration laws or even for the immigrants themselves, and voiced the belief that the addition of new judges to the US border will result in immigrants being given a fairer treatment by the system. “Currently, due in part to the lack of available judges, immigrants at the border are either detained for long periods of time or released into the United States with a promise to return at a later court date. Neither of those is a good option for the immigrants or the enforcement of our laws. Having more judges at the border will help treat immigrants more fairly.” said Congressman Cuellar.

The addition of new judges means that the number of judges who are able to hear immigration cases in the US will increase to as many as 584 across the country, with the intention being to have a total of 700 judges in hearing cases on the border.

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