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Advocates say a backlog in immigration courts denies justice to the accused, but they are not ready to endorse President Donald Trump’s plan to speed up the process by hiring more judges and prosecutors.
Under the fiscal 2018 budget outlined Thursday by the White House, the Justice Department would see a $1.1 billion cut to its overall funding. But the budget adds $80 million to hire 75 immigration judge teams, and calls for hiring 60 more border enforcement prosecutors and 40 deputy U.S. marshals to strengthen border enforcement efforts.
Immigration cases in Arizona take, on average, 700 days to reach trial, according to the most recent data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, compared to a national average of 673 days. In Phoenix, the average wait is 843 days.
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