Oregon Immigration Court Second Slowest in Nation; 80 Percent Slower Than 2008

by Mark Wilson

The national average to resolve an immigration case is 898 days, according to a Syracuse University statistical research group. Oregon’s immigrant court, however, takes an average of 1,178 days - or more than three years - to resolve cases. Only Nebraska is slower.

The cases include refugees who apply for asylum, people who overstay their visas, border crossers and others. The delay data focused only on cases in which immigrants were granted relief from deportation.

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) found that nationally the delay increased 37 percent, from 657 days in 2008 to 898 days in 2013. During the same period, Oregon’s delay increased 80 percent from 656 days to 1,178 days, despite a small reduction in its immigration case backlog between 2011 and 2013.

Officials at the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) - the United States Justice Department agency which supervises immigration courts - refused to comment on why Oregon’s pace is so extraordinarily slow.

“The caseload in every immigration court, including in Portland, Oregon, is tied directly to both the number of cases that the Department of Homeland Security files in the immigration courts and EOIR’s ability to complete those cases with available resources,” said EOIR spokeswoman Kathryn Mattingly.

Approximately 345,000 cases are currently pending before the nation’s immigration judges. Oregon has only a small percentage, with approximately 2,730 cases. For years, a single judge decided Oregon’s cases but a second judge was finally appointed in November 2010.

“The backlog was a bad situation and you’re not going to dig yourself out overnight,” noted Professor Susan Long, TRAC’s director.

With a caseload of about 1,365 cases per Oregon judge, and new cases added every day, Oregon likely won’t resolve its backlog anytime soon.

Source:Associated Press