Monday, November 08, 2010

Immigration backlog

I bring this up periodically, and wish the debate on immigration enforcement addressed it, but it so rarely does.  There is currently a backlog of 261,083 cases.  The Las Vegas court alone has a 2,080 case backlog, and a case right now would not come before a judge until around July 2011.  Anecdotally, I know that the Charlotte immigration court has a very similar situation.

From a normative perspective, this is cruel.  Even people who feel their case is very strong must have this hanging over their heads for months and months, causing tremendous stress on them and everyone they know.

From an enforcement perspective, this is a disaster.  The system is simply not currently constructed to handle it.

From an economic perspective, a well-functioning system will cost a lot.  A lot.

From a policy perspective, "enforcement" is a deceptive term.  Policy makers seem unwilling to acknowledge the fact that an expanded ICE presence means more removal proceedings.  The public has the false idea that undocumented immigrants are simply picked up and shipped off.

1 comments:

Defensores de Democracia 6:20 PM  

Is this "The Shape of Things to Come" ?

POLITICO.COM : "If you put the Latino vote at 50-50 in California, Nevada and Colorado, all four of those Democrats would have lost" : California Gov.-elect Jerry Brown and Sen. Barbara Boxer, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid and Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet"


How the West wasn't won : how democrats held their own in California, Nevada and Colorado

In Oregon, former Democratic Governor John Kitzhaber fended off a strong challenge from Republican Chris Dudley to win by less than 1 percentage point. In Washington State, Democratic Senator Patty Murray narrowly beat back challenger Republican Dino Rossi.

And Super Racist Tom Tancredo was defeated by Democrat John Hickenlooper for the Governorship of Colorado.

POLITICO.COM
How the West wasn't won
By MOLLY BALL
November 8, 2010


http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/44846.html


Some excerpts :

In California — as well as the interior Western states of Nevada and Colorado, where statewide candidates pulled off narrow wins — "it's absolutely a story about the Latino vote," Barreto said. "If you put the Latino vote at 50-50 in California, Nevada and Colorado, all four of those Democrats would have lost" — California Gov.-elect Jerry Brown and Sen. Barbara Boxer, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid and Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet.

Immigration was an issue in all three states, and Hispanic turnout was relatively high across the board: 22 percent in California, 15 percent in Nevada and 12 percent in Colorado, according to exit polls.

Despite Republicans' successes Tuesday, there are clear signs of long-term trouble for the party if it doesn't start reaching out to the fastest-growing minority group, Barreto said.

"In 2004, Bush won Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico. In 2008, Obama won those three," he noted. "Unless Republicans are just willing to put them out of play in presidential years, there needs to be outreach to Latinos."


Raciality.com

Vicente Duque

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