A compelling article in The New York Times highlights the profound impact of deportation on an undocumented immigrant who has lived in the U.S. since infancy, arriving at just 10 months old.
Immigration Court Closure
On December 26, 2018, 400 Immigration Judges were furloughed in the face of 770,000 pending cases. Hearings for non-detained immigrants have been cancelled. Before this announcement, the average wait time in court is 2 years. Now, we are looking at rescheduled cases years into the future.
An example of the fallout means that applicants hoping to get cancellation of removal based on their relationship with aging relatives or minor children could miss their opportunity to do so if a relative passes away or children turn 18.
Between the quota of resolving 700 cases a year plus 300,000 reactivated closed cases, the current backlog could grow to over 1 million cases.
The callousness of this decision ignores the enormous responsibility we owe to the people that the government has placed in deportation proceedings whose lives have been seriously impacted.