EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR IMMIGRATION REVIEW HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION, CITIZENSHIP, REFUGEES, BORDER SECURITY, AND INTERNATIONAL LAW OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION JUNE 17, 2010 Serial No. 111–111 Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://judiciary.house.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 56–955 PDF WASHINGTON : 2010 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate Aug 31 2005 15:37 Oct 19, 2010 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 H:\WORK\IMMIG\061710\56955.000 HJUD1 PsN: 56955 COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY JOHN CONYERS, JR., Michigan, Chairman HOWARD L. BERMAN, California LAMAR SMITH, Texas RICK BOUCHER, Virginia F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., JERROLD NADLER, New York Wisconsin ROBERT C. ‘‘BOBBY’’ SCOTT, Virginia HOWARD COBLE, North Carolina MELVIN L. WATT, North Carolina ELTON GALLEGLY, California ZOE LOFGREN, California BOB GOODLATTE, Virginia SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas DANIEL E. LUNGREN, California MAXINE WATERS, California DARRELL E. ISSA, California WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts J. RANDY FORBES, Virginia STEVE COHEN, Tennessee STEVE KING, Iowa HENRY C. ‘‘HANK’’ JOHNSON, JR., TRENT FRANKS, Arizona Georgia LOUIE GOHMERT, Texas PEDRO PIERLUISI, Puerto Rico JIM JORDAN, Ohio MIKE QUIGLEY, Illinois TED POE, Texas JUDY CHU, California JASON CHAFFETZ, Utah TED DEUTCH, Florida TOM ROONEY, Florida LUIS V. GUTIERREZ, Illinois GREGG HARPER, Mississippi TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin CHARLES A. GONZALEZ, Texas ANTHONY D. WEINER, New York ADAM B. SCHIFF, California LINDA T. SA´ NCHEZ, California DANIEL MAFFEI, New York JARED POLIS, Colorado PERRY APELBAUM, Majority Staff Director and Chief Counsel SEAN MCLAUGHLIN, Minority Chief of Staff and General Counsel SUBCOMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION, CITIZENSHIP, REFUGEES, BORDER SECURITY, AND INTERNATIONAL LAW ZOE LOFGREN, California, Chairwoman HOWARD L. BERMAN, California STEVE KING, Iowa SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas GREGG HARPER, Mississippi MAXINE WATERS, California ELTON GALLEGLY, California PEDRO PIERLUISI, Puerto Rico DANIEL E. LUNGREN, California LUIS V. GUTIERREZ, Illinois TED POE, Texas LINDA T. SA´ NCHEZ, California JASON CHAFFETZ, Utah ANTHONY D. WEINER, New York CHARLES A. GONZALEZ, Texas JUDY CHU, California UR MENDOZA JADDOU, Chief Counsel GEORGE FISHMAN, Minority Counsel (II) VerDate Aug 31 2005 15:37 Oct 19, 2010 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 0486 H:\WORK\IMMIG\061710\56955.000 HJUD1 PsN: 56955 C O N T E N T S JUNE 17, 2010 Page OPENING STATEMENTS The Honorable Zoe Lofgren, a Representative in Congress from the State of California, and Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law ........................................... 1 The Honorable Steve King, a Representative in Congress from the State of Iowa, and Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law ........................................... 2 WITNESSES Mr. Juan P. Osuna, Associate Deputy Attorney General for Immigration Policy, United States Department of Justice Oral Testimony ..................................................................................................... 6 Prepared Statement ............................................................................................. 8 Ms. Karen T. Grisez, Chair, Commission on Immigration, American Bar Asso- ciation Oral Testimony ..................................................................................................... 26 Prepared Statement ............................................................................................. 28 Mr. Russell R. Wheeler, President, The Governance Institute, Visiting Fellow, The Brookings Institution Oral Testimony ..................................................................................................... 40 Prepared Statement ............................................................................................. 42 The Honorable Dana Leigh Marks, President, National Association of Immi- gration Judges Oral Testimony ..................................................................................................... 53 Prepared Statement ............................................................................................. 55 The Honorable Mark H. Metcalf, former Immigration Judge Oral Testimony ..................................................................................................... 62 Prepared Statement ............................................................................................. 65 LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING Material submitted by the Honorable Steve King, a Representative in Con- gress from the State of Iowa, and Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law ........................................................................................................................ 68 APPENDIX MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING RECORD Post-Hearing Questions submitted by the Honorable Zoe Lofgren, a Rep- resentative in Congress from the State of California, and Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law ................................................................................................ 85 Response to Post-Hearing Questions from the Honorable Mark H. Metcalf, former Immigration Judge .................................................................................. 86 (III) VerDate Aug 31 2005 15:37 Oct 19, 2010 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 H:\WORK\IMMIG\061710\56955.000 HJUD1 PsN: 56955 VerDate Aug 31 2005 15:37 Oct 19, 2010 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 H:\WORK\IMMIG\061710\56955.000 HJUD1 PsN: 56955 EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR IMMIGRATION REVIEW THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 2010 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION, CITIZENSHIP, REFUGEES, BORDER SECURITY, AND INTERNATIONAL LAW COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, Washington, DC. The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:13 a.m., in room 2141, Rayburn House Office Building, the Honorable Zoe Lofgren (Chairwoman of the Subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives Lofgren, Jackson Lee, Pierluisi, Chu, and King. Staff present: (Majority) Hunter Hammill, USCIS Detailee; Traci Hong, Counsel; Andre´s Jimenez, Staff Assistant; and George Fishman, Minority Counsel. Ms. LOFGREN. This hearing of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law will come to order. I would like to welcome our witnesses, Members of the Sub- committee and everyone who has joined us today to explore the Im- migration Subcommittee’s oversight of the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, otherwise known as EOIR. The last time we had an oversight hearing on EOIR in Sep- tember of 2008, we had just learned about the Department of Jus- tice’s Office of Professional Responsibility and Inspector General’s joint report on politicized hiring of immigration judges and other DOJ personnel that occurred from 2003 to 2007. I am pleased to hear that many of the steps have been taken to retool the hiring process to protect it from the possibility of politicized hiring in the future. I look forward to continued reports from the Department of Justice to ensure that we do not repeat that serious mistake in the future. Today I hope to hear more about efforts to address the continued lack of resources at EOIR, training and supervision of immigration judges, improvements already made to the Board of Immigration Appeals and any additional reforms that could further improve the immigration court system. At a time when resources dedicated to the apprehension of illegal immigrants have rapidly increased, there has not been a cor- responding increase in resources necessary for the immigration (1) VerDate Aug 31 2005 15:37 Oct 19, 2010 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 H:\WORK\IMMIG\061710\56955.000 HJUD1 PsN: 56955 2 courts to handle the influx of removal cases, and this has resulted in excessive backlogs and significant delays. The appropriations levels for Immigration and Customs Enforce- ment increased from 3.5 billion in fiscal year 2004 to 5.4 billion in fiscal year 2010. The Customs and Border Protection went from 4.9 billion in fiscal 2004 to 10.1 billion in fiscal year 2010. These massive budget increases for immigration enforcement agencies mean many more cases for immigration judges, yet at the same time the number of immigration judges has hardly kept pace with the increased enforcement. In 2004 there were 215 immigra- tion judges, and today there are only 237. The backlog of cases has grown at an alarming rate from approximately 160,000 in 2004 to more than 240,000 cases as of March of this year. Immigration judges do not even have the necessary and appro- priate support staff to help deal with the increasing backlog. Un- like Federal court judges, who have two to three law clerks per judge, the average ratio of law clerks to immigration judges is one to four. On top of that, newly hired immigration judges are only provided 5 weeks of initial training, despite the fact that judges may be hired without any prior immigration