SALEM, Oregon - The immigration court system under the Trump administration has become a"deportation machine," two groups said in a lawsuit filed in federal court on Wednesday .
Melissa Crow, senior supervising attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Centre and a lead attorney in the case, said that some parts of the United States have become"asylum-free zones" because immigration courts in 23 cities have denied more than 85 per cent of applications for asylum, with El Paso having the highest denial rate at 96.6 per cent.
"The immigration court system is actually the central knot in the entire immigration policy debate," Manning said, adding that the Trump administration uses the immigration courts' dysfunctionality to justify increased detention and"totally inhumane practices" like forcing asylum seekers from Central America to remain in Mexico or be flown to other countries.
To receive a satisfactory performance rating, immigration judges must decide approximately three cases per day and issue decisions on the merits of a case no more than 10 days after the final hearing , Crow said. Pushing the judges to go through cases faster is a dashboard on their computer that shows, in real time, progress in achieving the attorney-general's performance metrics. Meters showing red, yellow or green indicate whether their cases are proceeding fast enough.Some cases, on the other hand, are left dangling for as many as five years, making it harder for attorneys to find witnesses and evidence after all that time, Manning said.