[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 105 (Wednesday, August 2, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S8612]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. DOMENICI:
  S. 3773. A bill to increase the number of Federal judgeships, in 
accordance with recommendations by the Judicial Conference, in 
districts that have an extraordinarily high immigration caseload; to 
the Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I rise today with Senators Kyl and 
Cornyn to introduce legislation that creates the new Federal judgeships 
recommended by the 2005 Judicial Conference for our U.S. district 
courts that have a serious overload of immigration cases.
  I believe it is imperative to equip all of our Federal agencies with 
the assets they need to secure our borders and enforce our immigration 
laws. That includes equipping our U.S. district courts with enough 
judges to handle the criminal immigration cases that appear on their 
dockets. The immigration reform bill passed by the Senate in May 
recognizes that with increased border security and immigration 
enforcement there will be increased prosecutions, and the bill calls 
for more immigration judges to handle those prosecutions. But the bill 
fails to recognize that repeat immigration law violators can be charged 
with a felony and tried in U.S. district court. We need to increase the 
number of judges in our district courts that handle such cases, 
particularly in those districts that are already overwhelmed with 
immigration cases.
  The legislation I am proposing creates eleven new Federal judgeships, 
as recommended by the Judicial Conference, in the U.S. district courts 
in which at least 50 percent of their criminal cases are immigration 
cases. The bill affects four districts, all of which border Mexico. In 
fiscal year 2004, the Western District of Texas had 5599 criminal case 
filings, 3,688 of those cases, over 65 percent, dealt with immigration. 
The District Court of Arizona had 4,007 criminal filings, of which 
2,404 cases, or 59 percent, were immigration filings. The Southern 
District of California has 2,206 immigration filings, 64 percent of 
their 3,400 total criminal filings. Lastly, the District of New Mexico 
had 2,497 criminal filings, 60 percent of them, 1,502 cases, were 
immigration cases.
  Based on these caseloads, I think we should already be giving these 
districts new judgeships. But to increase our border security and 
immigration enforcement efforts without equipping these courts to 
handle the even larger immigration caseloads that they are expected to 
face would be tantamount to willful negligence.
  The New Mexico District Chief Judge, Martha Vazquez, wrote me a 
letter in May about the situation the New Mexico District faces. Judge 
Vazquez wrote:

       As it is, the burden on Article III Judges in this District 
     is considerable. This District ranks first among all 
     districts in criminal filings per judgeship: 405 criminal 
     filings compared to the national average of 87. As in all 
     federal districts along the southwest border, the majority of 
     cases filed in this District relate to immigration offenses 
     under United States Code, Title 8 and drug offenses arising 
     under Title 21. Immigration and drug cases account for 
     eighty-five percent of the caseload in the District of New 
     Mexico. . . In fiscal year 1997, there were 240 immigration 
     felony filings in the District of New Mexico. By fiscal year 
     2005, the number of immigration felony filings increased to 
     1,826, which is an increase of 661 percent . . . Increasing 
     the number of Immigration Judges will do nothing to reduce 
     the increasing caseload in the border states' federal courts.

  The Albuquerque Tribune has also documented the burden immigration 
cases put on district courts. An April 17 article entitled ``Judges See 
Ripple Effect of Policy on Immigration,'' stated:

       U.S. District Chief Judge Martha Vazquez of Santa Fe 
     oversees a court that faces a rising caseload from illegal 
     border crossings and related crime. And help from Washington 
     is by no means certain . . . From Sept. 30, 1999 to Sept. 30, 
     2004 (the end of the fiscal year), the caseload in the New 
     Mexico federal district court increased 57.5 percent, from 
     2,804 to 4,416. In the 2004 fiscal year alone, 2,126 felony 
     cases were heard, almost half of all cases in the entire 10th 
     Circuit, which includes Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Utah and 
     Wyoming. Most typical immigration cases go before an 
     immigration judge, and the subjects are deported. But people 
     deported once and caught crossing illegally again can be 
     charged with a felony. And that brings the defendant into 
     federal district court. Those are the cases driving up New 
     Mexico's caseload . . . Some days as many as 90 defendants 
     crowd the courtroom in Las Cruces . . . The same problems are 
     afflicting federal border courts in Arizona, California, and 
     Texas.

  Similar problems were documented in a May 23 Reuters article entitled 
``Bush Border Patrol Plan to Pressure Courts'' which said:

       President George W. Bush's plan to send thousands of 
     National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border could spark a 
     surge in immigration cases and U.S. courts are ill prepared 
     to handle them . . . Even without the stepped-up security at 
     the border, federal courts in southern California, Arizona, 
     New Mexico and Texas have been overburdened. Carelli [a 
     spokesman for U.S. federal courts] said those five judicial 
     districts, out of 94 nationwide, account for 34 percent of 
     all criminal cases moving through U.S. courts . . . Most 
     immigrants caught crossing illegally are ordered out of the 
     country without prosecution. But that still leaves a growing 
     pile of cases involving illegals who are being prosecuted 
     after being caught multiple times or those accused of other 
     crimes . . . Nationwide, each U.S. judge handles an average 
     of 87 cases a year. But along the southern border, even 
     before Bush's plan moves forward, the average is around 300 
     per judge, Carelli said.

  Mr. President, the U.S. Congress needs to address the overwhelming 
immigration caseload in our southwestern border U.S. district courts. 
The bill I am filing today with Senators Kyl and Cornyn does just that 
by authorizing the nine permanent and two temporary judgeships 
recommended by the 2005 Judicial Conference for the four U.S. districts 
in which the immigration caseload totals more than fifty percent of 
those districts' total criminal caseload.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

                                S. 3773

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. ADDITIONAL DISTRICT COURT JUDGESHIPS.

       The President shall appoint, by and with the advice and 
     consent of the Senate, such additional district court judges 
     as are necessary to carry out the 2005 recommendations of the 
     Judicial Conference of the United States for district courts 
     in which the criminal immigration filings totaled more than 
     50 percent of all criminal filings for the 12-month period 
     ending September 30, 2004.
                                 ______