DOJ To Turn Immigration Judges Into ‘Assembly Line Workers’
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is planning on implementing numerical quotas on judges as a way of tracking their and evaluating their performance. Currently, immigration judges are not rated based on the number of cases they adjudicate. The DOJ is currently in negotiations with the National Association of Immigration Judges to remove those safeguards and declare a need to increase the number of deportation in order to reduce to court’s backlog.
If the proposed quotas is imposed, immigration judges will be under an immense amount of pressure to adjudicate cases more quickly putting them at risk for deporting those with valid claims for immigration benefits. The Justice Department has major concerns about the 60,000 case backlog pending in immigration courts and may see this numerical quota as an immediate solution to reduce that number.
Tying the number of cases completed to the evaluation of an individual immigration judge’s performance could violate their duty to be fair and impartial when deciding cases and will be at the risk of due process.