[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 64 (Thursday, May 15, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4580-S4581]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             DISTRICT COURT BACKLOG AND JUDICIAL VACANCIES

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, for the past several months I have spoken 
about the crisis being created by the almost 100 vacancies that are 
being perpetuated on the Federal courts around the country and the 
failure of the Senate to carry out its constitutional responsibilities 
to advise and consent to judicial confirmations.
  Today, the Washington Post, in an excellent article written by Sue 
Anne Pressley, focused on the consequences of this judicial crisis in 
one district court in Texas, the southern district of Texas. The 
article reports on the growing drug and immigration cases that are 
inundating this district court and the lack of Federal judges needed to 
administer justice in these cases.
  This district has two vacancies, one open since December 1, 1990, and 
the President has nominated Hilda Tagle to fill this judicial emergency 
vacancy. Ms. Tagle's nomination was first received by the Senate 
Judiciary Committee on August 10, 1995, but she has yet to have a 
hearing before the committee.
  This district in Texas is only one example of crisis that affects the 
entire country. We could find similar backlog problems in district 
courts in California, Florida, and other States that are swamped with 
rising cases and unfilled judicial vacancies. Yesterday, I met with 
members of the Federal Judges Association who are very concerned about 
the growing backlogs and rising caseloads in Federal courts across the 
Nation.
  I want to commend Senators Boxer, Sarbanes, and Kennedy for joining 
me yesterday on the Senate floor to speak out against the Senate's 
current stall on confirming Federal judges. I also want to commend 
Senator Kohl for his similar remarks today.
  Mr. President, confirming Federal judges should not be a partisan 
issue. The administration of justice is not a political issue. Working 
together, the Senate should do our constitutionally mandated job and 
proceed to confirm the judges we need for the Federal system.
  I ask unanimous consent that today's Washington Post article titled 
``Cases Pile Up As Judgeships Remain Vacant'' be printed in the Record 
immediately after my remarks.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the Washington Post, May 15, 1997]

               Cases Pile Up As Judgeships Remain Vacant

                         (By Sue Anne Pressley)

       Laredo, Tex.--The drug and illegal immigrant cases keep 
     coming. No sooner does Chief U.S. District Judge George Kazen 
     clear one case than a stack of new cases piles up. He takes 
     work home at night, on weekends.
       ``It's like a tidal wave,'' Kazen said recently. ``As soon 
     as I finish 25 cases per month, the next 25 are on top of me 
     and then you've got the sentence reports you did 2 months 
     before. There is no stop, no break at all, year in and year 
     out, here they come.
       ``We've already got more than we can say grace over down 
     here,'' he said.
       This is what happens to a federal judge on the southern 
     border of the United States when Washington cracks down on 
     illegal immigration and drug smuggling. It is a situation 
     much aggravated by the fact that the Senate in Washington has 
     left another federal judgeship in this district vacant for 2 
     years, one of 72 vacancies on federal district courts around 
     the country.
       As Border Patrol officers and other federal agents swarm, 
     this southernmost region of Texas along the Mexican border in 
     ever-increasing numbers, Judge Kazen's docket has grown and 
     grown. He has suggested, so far unsuccessfully, that a 
     judgeship in Houston be re-assigned to the Rio Grande Valley 
     to help cope.
       In Washington, where the laws and policies were adopted 
     that has made Kazen's life so difficult, the Senate has made 
     confirmation of federal judges a tedious process, often 
     fraught with partisan politics. In addition to the 72 federal 
     district court vacancies (the trial level), there are 25 
     circuit court vacancies (the appellate level) and two vacant 
     international trade court judgeships across the country, 
     leaving unfilled 99 positions, or 11 percent of the federal 
     judiciary. Twenty-six nominations from President Clinton are 
     pending, according to Jeanne Lopatto, spokeswoman for the 
     Senate Judiciary Committee, which considers nominations for 
     recommendation to the full Senate for confirmation.


 on texas border, cases won't wait for wrangling on judicial vacancies

       Of those 99 vacancies, 24 qualify as judicial emergencies, 
     meaning the positions have been vacant more than 18 months, 
     according to David Sellers of the administrative Office of 
     the U.S. Courts. Two of the emergencies exist in Texas, 
     including the one in Kazen's southern district.
       Lopatto said the thorough investigation of each nominee is 
     a time-consuming process. But political observers say 
     Republicans, who run the Senate, are in no hurry to approve 
     candidates submitted by a Democratic president. The pinch is 
     particularly painful here in border towns. The nominee for 
     Brownsville, in Kazan's district, has been awaiting approval 
     since 1995. Here in Laredo, Kazen's criminal docket has 
     increased more than 20 percent over last year.
       ``We have a docket,'' he said, ``that can be tripled 
     probably at the drop of a hat. . . . The Border Patrol 
     people, the Customs people at the [international] bridges 
     will tell you, they don't catch a tenth of who is going 
     through. The more checkpoints you man, the more troops you 
     have at the bridges, will necessarily mean more stops and 
     more busts.''
       And many more arrests are expected, the result of an 
     unprecedented focus on policing the U.S.-Mexican border. 
     Earlier this year, Clinton unveiled a $367 million program 
     for the Southwest for fiscal 1998, beginning Oct. 1, that 
     includes hiring 500 new Border Patrol agents, 277 inspectors 
     for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 96 Drug 
     Enforcement Administration agents and 70 FBI agents.
       In Kazen's territory, the number of Border Patrol agents 
     already has swollen dramatically, from 347 officers assigned 
     to the Laredo area in fiscal 1993 to 411 officers in 
     fiscal 1996. More tellingly, in 1993, agents in the Laredo 
     sector arrested more than 82,000 people on cocaine, 
     marijuana and illegal immigration charges. By 1996, 
     arrests had soared to nearly 132,000, according to data 
     supplied by the INS.
       All of which is keeping Kazen and the other judges here 
     hopping. ``I don't know what the answer is,'' said U.S. 
     District Judge John Rainey, who has been acting as ``a 
     circuit rider'' as he tries to help Kazen out in Laredo from 
     his post in Victoria, Tex. ``I certainly don't see it easing 
     up anytime soon. There still seems to be such a demand for 
     drugs in this country, and that's what causes people to bring 
     them in. Until society changes, we won't see any changes down 
     here.''
       In a letter to Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez (D-Tex.) in February, 
     Kazen outlined the need for a new judge in the Laredo or 
     McAllen division, rather than in Houston, where a vacancy was 
     recently created when then-Chief Judge Norman Black assumed 
     senior status. ``The `border' divisions of our court--
     Brownsville, McAllen and Laredo--have long borne the burden 
     of one of the heaviest criminal dockets in the country, and 
     the processing of criminal cases involves special pressures, 
     including those generated by the Speedy Trial Act,'' he 
     wrote.
       On a recent typical day, Kazen said, he sentenced six 
     people on drug charges and listened to an immigration case. 
     His cases tend to involve marijuana more often than cocaine, 
     he said.
       ``The border is a transshipment area,'' he said. ``The fact 
     is, a huge amount of contraband somehow crosses the Texas-
     Mexican border, people walking through where the river is 
     low, and there are hundreds and hundreds of miles of 
     unpatrolled ranchland.
       ``In some cases,'' Kazen continued, ``we're seeing a 
     difference in the kind of defendant. We're almost never 
     seeing the big shots--we're seeing the soldiers. Once in a 
     while, we'll see a little bigger fish, but we're dealing with 
     very, very smart people. We see some mom-and-pop stuff, too. 
     There was a guy who came before me who had been in the Army 
     umpteen years, and he needed the money, he was going 
     bankrupt, so he did this 600-pound marijuana deal. he said he 
     stood to pick up $50,000, and now he's facing five to 40 
     years.
       ``We see kids 18 and 19 years old,'' Kazen said. ``We see 
     pregnant women. We see disabled people in wheelchairs. This 
     is very, very tempting stuff.''

[[Page S4581]]

       In Washington, the argument over court vacancies continues. 
     On April 30, Attorney General Janet Reno told the Judiciary 
     Committee, ``Chief judges are calling my staff to report the 
     prospect of canceling court sittings and suspending civil 
     calendars for lack of judges, and to ask when they can expect 
     help. This committee must act now to send this desperately 
     needed help.''
       In remarks yesterday to the Federal Judges Association 
     meeting in Washington, Reno warned that ``the number [of 
     vacancies] is growing.''
       ``As you are no doubt aware,'' Reno told the judges, ``the 
     level of contentiousness on the issue of filling judicial 
     vacancies has unfortunately increased in recent times.''

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