Immigration-appeal plan raises concerns

[suffragette]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/264336_immig25.html


A little-noticed provision in two key Senate immigration bills would reshape the handling of immigration appeals cases and has touched off an outcry from several legal scholars, federal judges and the policy-making group for the federal courts.

The measure would designate the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit here, an administrative court that focuses primarily on patent cases and currently handles no immigration appeals, as the only court in the nation to handle immigration appeals. Such appeals are currently shared by the other 12 federal appellate courts.

The judges and scholars say that the circuit court in Washington, which handles about 1,500 non-immigration cases a year, would be swamped by an additional 12,000 immigration cases. And they say that the court lacks the expertise to handle complex immigration cases, which often raise a host of constitutional and human-rights issues.

~snip~

Critics of the new legislation say that the idea of shifting appeals to Washington is misdirected and that a better solution would be to add resources to the overstrapped local immigration courts and the immigration appeals court, known as the Board of Immigration Appeals. They said proposed increases in funding were inadequate, leaving immigration judges overburdened, and threatening immigrants' rights to federal review.

The bills cited are those proposed by Spector and Frist.

Durbin is fighting it. The article also cites prominent judges who express concern about this.

It makes no sense in terms of finding solutions.

Why propose something that would swamp judges, overwhelm courts and delay or deny justice?

[im10ashus]

1. And now they are making a special court for it.

Lovely. It's getting more interesting by the minute.

[suffragette]

2. Yep it looks like they're trying to break it,

then say it needs fixing because it's broken.

:crazy:

[im10ashus]

3. That's typical of them.

This too shall pass.

[DBoon]

4. Why?

Why propose something that would swamp judges, overwhelm courts and delay or deny justice?

Because justice is to Frist what garlic is to a vampire.

[suffragette]

5. So true, so true.

[rodeodance]

6. I imagine that Bush can appoint these judges?--consolidating control?

Critics of the new legislation say that the idea of shifting appeals to Washington is misdirected and that a better solution would be to add resources to the overstrapped local immigration courts and the immigration appeals court, known as the Board of Immigration Appeals. They said proposed increases in funding were inadequate, leaving immigration judges overburdened, and threatening immigrants' rights to federal review.

[suffragette]

7. Good point

I hadn't even caught that one.
It says that the number of judges would be increased from 12 to 15. Which gives him three new judges to appoint.
This looks worse the more you look at it.

[mia]

8. Kicked and Nominated

:kick: