News Bytes

Last month, Department of Homeland Security released a press release announcing a name change of their departments.  Effective immediately, what was once the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement will now be known as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  Also changing is the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.  

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According to The Associated Press, the drastic increase of immigration-related felony cases is beginning to take a toll on federal courts along the Southwest border.  Judges in the five, mostly rural judicial districts on the border carry the heaviest felony caseloads in the nation. Federal judges in the five districts – Southern and Western Texas , New Mexico , Arizona and Southern California – handled one-third of all felonies prosecuted in the nation’s 94 federal judicial districts in 2005.  Each judge in New Mexico handled an average of 397 felony cases in 2006, far exceeding the national average of 84.

Judges in the districts say they are stretched to the limit with cases involving drug trafficking or undocumented immigrants who have been arrested for committing crimes.  "The need is really dire.  You cannot keep increasing the number of Border Patrol agents but not increasing the number of judges," said Chief Judge John M. Roll of the District of Arizona.  

This problem began surfacing last fall, when Customs and Border Protection implemented "Operation Streamline," which suspends the practice of merely sending home undocumented immigrants caught near the border, instead sending them to court.  New Mexico ’s federal judges reminded Border Patrol that they lacked the resources to handle the hundreds of new defendants.  "We said, ‘Do you realize that the second week into this we’re going to run out of jail space?’" Martha Vazquez, chief judge for the District of New Mexico, recalled telling Border Patrol.  "We were obviously alarmed because where would we put our bank robbers?  Our rapists?  Those who violate probation?"   

Border Patrol eventually dropped "Operation Streamline," but with an estimated 4,000 people undocumented entering every day, the court system still remains overwhelmed.   

"It’d be swell to have another judge or two," said Judge George Kazen, of Southern District of Texas.  "It would mean a little more time to spend on civil stuff, and a little more time to reflect.  We have to make quick calls and move on."  

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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have announced that after just five weeks, it has released all 20,000 visa numbers for H-1B petitions filed on behalf of immigrants with U.S.-earned Masters or higher degrees. Last year, the cap for this group was reached on August 1^st.

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