Two top Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee demanded answers from Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday over how his department has been running the immigration courts, where a massive backlog of cases has fueled the Biden administration’s “catch-and-release” approach for processing of migrants at the nation’s southern border.
Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan and Rep. Tom McClintock, the California Republican who chairs the panel’s immigration subcommittee, have been pursuing the data since January and say 13 separate inquiries have gone largely unanswered by the administration, even as the backlog gets worse.
They say the data they are requesting would shed light on the bottleneck and why the administration is having such a tricky time solving it.
“Since January, the committee has asked the department for basic data and information related to the nation’s immigration courts and the Biden administration’s refusal to pursue immigration cases,” said Russell Dye, a spokesman for the committee. “After the committee attempted more than a dozen times to receive this data and information, the department continues to stonewall, likely trying to hide how the administration’s failed policies have been a disaster for the nation’s immigration courts.”
The immigration courts are where migrants who are in the country illegally go to argue against deportation, often by making claims for asylum. Migrants are arrested and issued a summons to appear later before the Executive Office of Immigration Review to look into their case.
The EOIR is part of the Justice Department and is staffed by department employees known as immigration judges.
But critics say the office has also become the black box of the current immigration crisis.
The EOIR’s backlog reached 1.979 million cases as of March, up from 1.277 million at the end of 2020, or just before President Biden took office. That increase happened even as judges have been ordered to dismiss record numbers of cases to get them off the docket.
The massive growth is a result of the migrant surge from Mexico, where unprecedented numbers of people have jumped the border and been caught and released in order to fight their deportations in court.
Mr. Jordan, Ohio Republican, says he’s been unable to get “basic data” about the agency’s operations, including how judges are ruling in more than half of the cases they close.
The EOIR, in the data it does release, says that while 16% of cases completed this year resulted in approvals, 18% were denials and 9% were given what’s known as “administrative closure,” nearly 57% were simply labeled “other.” Mr. Jordan said Congress must be given a full breakdown of what’s happening in those cases.
The GOP chairman is also trying to get data on how quickly judges are ruling on cases, how many immigration courtrooms have sat “dark,” and how teleworking has operated.
The committee also asked Mr. Garland to make Michael Tennyson, the EOIR’s statistics chief, available for a transcribed interview.
The Washington Times has reached out to the Justice Department for comment on this story.
Department officials have acknowledged the EOIR’s struggles and said their primary focus is reducing the backlog.
Mr. Biden, in his fiscal 2024 budget request, proposed a 69% increase in funding for the agency, which would bring its total budget to nearly $1.5 billion. While much of the money would go to more judges and staff, some of it would go to pay for lawyers to represent the migrants.
The EOIR also asked Congress to move the agency from annual to three-year budgeting, saying it needs strategic planning to attack the backlog “in a meaningful way.”
Even as it pleads for new funding, the EOIR has been on a purge, ousting judges and senior leaders recruited in the Trump administration.
One of those let go was Matt O’Brien, a former immigration judge who is now with the Immigration Reform Law Institute, which advocates for stricter immigration enforcement.
Mr. O’Brien said the Biden administration appears to be running up the backlog on purpose, allowing unauthorized migrants to remain in the U.S. until they can either find a path to permanent status or until Congress delivers on a broad amnesty.
He said Mr. Jordan’s requests could shed light on attempts to slow-walk cases.
Mr. Jordan and Mr. McClintock, California Republican, said the committee made inquiries to the administration in January, four times in February, three times in June, three times in July and twice last month.
Save for one acknowledgment on Feb. 7 and a single paragraph reply on Feb. 23, the committee has gotten nothing back, the lawmakers said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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