U.S. attorney general issues order to
speed up immigrant deportations
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[August 17, 2018]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney
General Jeff Sessions on Thursday sought to speed up the deportation of
illegal immigrants, telling immigration judges they should only postpone
cases in removal proceedings "for good cause shown."
Sessions, in an interim order that was criticized by some lawyers, said
the "good-cause" standard "limits the discretion of immigration judges
and prohibits them from granting continuances for any reason or no
reason at all."
Unlike the federal judiciary system, U.S. immigration courts fall under
the Department of Justice and the attorney general can intervene.
Sessions, a Republican former U.S. Senator appointed by President Donald
Trump, has been unusually active in this practice compared to his
predecessors.
Sessions has led efforts by the Trump administration to crack down on
illegal immigration, including a "zero tolerance" policy that separated
immigrant parents from their children while they were in U.S. detention.
Trump abandoned the separation policy in June under political pressure.
Critical in showing "good cause" is whether a person is likely to
succeed in efforts to remain in the United States, either by appealing
for asylum or receiving some form of visa or work permit, Sessions said
on Thursday.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2018/Aug/17/images/ads/current/pest-control-SDA-Termites-2015.png)
Stephen Kang, an attorney with the ACLU immigrants rights project,
described Sessions' order as "troubling" and one of a series that "has
moved in the direction of restricting due process rights for individuals
who are in removal proceedings."
Kang said Sessions seemed to portray immigrants seeking more time to
prepare their cases as trying to "game the system and avoid
deportation."
Kang said removal proceedings were complex and people needed time "both
to get lawyers to ensure that their due process rights are protected and
time just to make sure their cases get a fair hearing."
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![](../images/081718pics/news_d9.jpg)
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions takes part in a Federal
Commission on School Safety meeting at the White House in
Washington, D.C., U.S., August 16, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis
![](../images/ads/current/richardson_lda_PREMIUM_081018.png)
The Justice Department has been struggling to reduce a backlog of
deportation cases. An analysis by the Government Accountability
Office last year found the number of cases that drag on from one
year to the next more than doubled between 2006 and 2015, mainly
because fewer cases are completed per year.
Department spokesman Devin O'Malley said more immigration judges had
been hired, but "unnecessary and improper continuances ... continue
to plague the immigration court system and contribute to the
backlog."
Sessions said on Thursday that the "use of continuances as a
dilatory tactic is particularly pernicious in the immigration
context" because people in the country illegally who want to remain
have an incentive to delay their deportation as long as possible.
Granting continuances solely for good cause would be an "important
check on immigration judges' authority" and demonstrate public
interest in "expeditious enforcement of the immigration laws,"
Sessions said.
(Reporting by David Alexander; editing by Leslie Adler and Grant
McCool)
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