The Daily Caller | ICE Fast-Tracks Amnesty for illegal Aliens to Clear Immigration-Court Backlog

ICE Fast-Tracks Amnesty for illegal Aliens to Clear Immigration-Court Backlog
By Michael Volpe | The DC Social Reader | April 4, 2012

With only 254 immigration judges available to hear 300,000 cases currently somewhere in the immigration judicial system, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has begun a review of its to determine who may be eligible for a type of ICE amnesty known as “administrative closure.”

Speaking during a March hearing before the Homeland Subcommittee in the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives, ICE Director John Morton said his agency has already reviewed the cases of 142,212 illegal aliens who are not currently in custody. ICE concluded that 13,175 of them should start the process toward administrative closure, Morton said.

Those who enter that process will have to pass a background check and clear other administrative hurdles before they have their cases put into “closure.”

Ben Winograd, a staff attorney at the left-leaning American Immigration Council, told The Daily Caller that the ICE review is little more than an effort to clear its backlog. The latest data from the Department of Justice indicates that just 254 immigration court judges have about 300,000 cases on their dockets at any given time.

“The numbers don’t add up,” Winograd said, suggesting that the problem is merely one of statistics. “The real answer is to reduce the pool of people that can be put into proceedings.”

While most immigration analysts agree that the U.S. lacks a sufficient number of immigration judges, not everyone wants to release illegal aliens through a virtual safety valve.

Jessica Vaughan, an analyst with the right-leaning Center for Immigration Studies, told theDC that ICE’s unilateral action is hijacking the judicial system’s authority.

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