DOJ ready to remove backlog, lays out new quotas to hasten deportations of illegal immigrants

Robert Donachie, DCNF

The Justice Department (DOJ) is going to start evaluating immigration judges based on how quickly they are able to close cases, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on 'Oversight of the U.S. Department of Justice' on Capital Hill in Washington, DC, on October 18, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / Jason Connolly (Photo credit should read JASON CONNOLLY/AFP/Getty Images) — (JASON CONNOLLY/AFP/Getty Images)

DOJ officials laid out the new rules in an email to immigration judges March 30, The Journal reported. Under the new rules, immigration judges will be required to complete at least 700 cases per year and have no more than 15 percent of their decisions sent back by a higher court.

Some judges have completed fewer than 700 cases a year over the past half decade, while others have closed over 1,500.

Other changes include demanding 85 percent of removal cases be closed within three days of a hearing on merits of case. Some changes set the bar even higher, demanding stricter case closing dates for removal cases.

“The purpose of implementing these metrics is to encourage efficient and effective case management while preserving immigration judge discretion and due process,” Executive Office for Immigration Review director James McHenry told law enforcement officials in the Friday email.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions and others within the department have repeatedly said there is too much backlog in the courts, which is keeping illegal immigrants subject for removal within the U.S.

Immigration courts are currently experience a backlog of over 684,000 cases, according to a Syracuse University tracker.

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