HireCentrix News - News Articles

Immigration Court Backlogs Continue To Climb

Friday, 13 August 2010 00:00

In the last nine months, the backlog of cases in the immigration court in Harlingen, Texas—a city in the heart of the Rio Grande Valley— has grown 67 percent—the biggest jump as immigration case backlogs and wait times generally continued their upward drive, according to a university tracking program.

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University reported Thursday that the number of pending cases in the nation’s immigration courts reached an all-time high of 247,922 by mid-June—up 2.1% since TRAC’s last report three months ago, and 33.1% higher than the number of cases pending at the end of fiscal 2008.

The average wait time in immigration courts also is moving upward, according to TRAC, and is now 459 days. The longest wait times are in California—an average of 643 days.

In examining immigration courts with the fastest buildups, TRAC considers only those courts with at least 1,000 pending cases. After the four-judge court in Harlingen, Texas, the court in Las Vegas ranked second (up 58%), followed by San Antonio (up 55%); Chicago (up 39%), and Phoenix (up 37%).

Marcia Coyle for LegalTimes

Comments:

Share Your Opinion using Disqus
- Add a Comment via Facebook-

blog comments powered by Disqus

Download SocComments v1.3

< Prev		Next >

Author of this article: Marcia Coyle

» Interns sue Black Swan producers for wages

Class action lawsuit against Black Swan movie producer challenges the use of unpaid interns.The use of unpaid interns is a long-standing practice in many industries, particularly in the entertainment industry. That practice is under fire with the...

» Employers May Need to Provide Employees with Leave For Involvement With School-Related Activities

Next week, millions of children around the country will return to school, which serves as a good time to remind employers that they may have to provide short-term unpaid job-protected leave to their employees seeking to participate in their...

» Even Best Practices Can't Always Ensure Quick Dismissal of Wage & Hour Claims

You're a savvy employer. Your timekeeping policies are clear. Your employees know that they are required to report all of their work time. Employees sign off on their time records each week. You even provide a procedure for employees to...

» Former HR director Claims that Racist graffiti was common at Austal USA

MOBILE, Alabama— Attorneys for a former Austal USA employee this afternoon read part of the deposition of a past human resources manager to support the plaintiff’s allegations that the shipyard tolerated a racially hostile workplace.

» Census Bureau Projects U.S. Population of 312.8 Million on New Year's Day 2012

As our nation prepares to ring in the new year, the U.S. Census Bureau today projected the Jan. 1, 2012, total United States population will be 312,780,968. This would represent an increase of 2,250,129, or 0.7 percent, from New Year's Day...