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JEFF SESSIONS WANTS TO IMPOSE QUOTAS ON IMMIGRATION JUDGES. HERE’S WHY THAT’S A BAD IDEA.

Samantha Michaels

Apr 5, 2018

In her piece, Michaels breaks down the possible consequences of imposing new quotas on immigration judges to reduce the backlog of 685,000 cases in the system. Although the new quota judges will have to meet is 700 cases per year, the current average that judges complete is 678. Michaels writes that according to Judge Ashley Tabaddor, this may mean judges can only give each case a maximum of two and a half hours, when asylum cases usually have “hundreds of pages of supporting documents and require hours of testimony and deliberation.” Importantly, not all cases are the same- some may be more complicated and require more time to prepare than others. Michaels reports on Judge Tabaddor’s comments that quotas would “[pit] the judges’ personal livelihood to mere completion of cases faster through the system, rather than making decisions that are based on the fact and the law of the case as they took the oath to do.”

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