Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic Co-Director Emily Robinson '12 submitted a letter on behalf of immigration professors and clinicians related to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration prior to their April 18, 2018 hearing "Strengthening and Reforming America’s Immigration Court System."An excerpt appears below:
Immigration judges are employees of the Department of Justice and are deprived of many protections had by Article I and Article III Judges. Attorney General Sessions introduced a new EOIR Performance Plan, which was first announced by EOIR’s head, James McHenry by e-mail on March 30, 2018. Under the new standards, which are set to go into effect on October 1, 2018, immigration judges will be required to meet a number of performance metrics, which include completing 700 cases a year and having fewer than 15 percent of their cases sent back by a higher court. These metrics are not put forth as suggestions or guidelines, but, rather, are inextricably tied to job security and raises. This means that immigration judges have a financial stake in the number of deportation orders they enter, or clients they convince to self-deport orvoluntarily depart.
Read the letter in its entirety
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