7/17/2014
Immigration Attorney Carlos Garcia said illegal immigration is nothing new.
But with a new wave of undocumented immigrants crossing the border into the Rio Grande Valley, it’s weighing down an already heavy immigration docket.
Garcia told Action 4 News that It’s causing delays and pushing back some cases by months and others by years.
“Cases have always taken a long time and part of the problem has been immigration court resources have been not sufficient," said attorney Carlos Garcia.
The immigration courts were already backlogged, so the recent surge of undocumented immigrants is only adding to the problem.
The attorney told Action4 News that the court is now giving priority to immigrants detained in the Border Patrol facilities over other immigrants, who may already have a pending case.
"If they are on a non-detained docket where they are not locked up right now, their cases are probably being delayed here in our local immigration courts because the judges in Harlingen are only hearing detained cases- at least the majority of the judges," explained Garcia.
He said there isn't enough staff and immigration judges to handle so many of these delicate life-changing cases.
"They are very serious and immigration judges need the time to be able to devote to these cases," Garcia said. " think we miss the point if we ask for speedy deportation."
Garcia said many of the cases can take anywhere from a few weeks to a couple months.
He explained that some of these immigrants are fleeing violence and that making a quick decision on their immigration status can mean life or death.
He told Action4 News that many of the immigrants without documents do not have the ability to go through legal immigration process.
"They don’t have any other option-either they don’t have a family member to petition for them or they are not in a situation that facilitates the immigration process for them," he said.
Garcia believes that due to the overloaded docket and in order to make room for more people at the facilities, the detention center in Port Isabel has had to bring in visiting judges to hear detained cases in hopes to move them along quicker.
The McAllen-based attorney said some undocumented immigrants may not be eligible or have the resources to pay their bond, which means they will remain at the detention facilities until their case is resolved.
He said the bond amounts range, but right now, the average bond is about $7,500 dollars.
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