Courts Reflect Confused Immigration Situation

The immigration judge quoted in “Immigrant Pleas Crushing Federal Appellate Courts” (May 2) sounds desperate when he says that he and his colleagues are currently working like “the guy behind the curtain in ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ ”

In fact, anyone who has recently had much to do with our immigration courts would find many similarities to life on the yellow brick road without any of its more comical aspects.

The so-called reforms to the appeals process instituted by former Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft had but one goal: lower the backlog by rejecting appeals as quickly as possible. To Ashcroft’s credit, however, he did attempt an ingenious maneuver to avoid immigrants clogging the courts. In several jurisdictions, he had them jailed or put under house arrest when their appeals were filed. Not surprisingly, this lowered the appeals volume almost immediately.

Perhaps the most absurd aspect of this judicial disaster is that the ax of deportation falls on those immigrants who attempt to correct their residency problems legally.

The increasing millions who enter and remain undetected are thereby given an object lesson as to why they should steer clear of seeking remedies in our court system.

What a mess!

David Rothstein

Rancho Mirage

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There are so many appeals of immigration decisions in the 9th Circuit because, no matter how ridiculous the argument presented by the immigrants, they win. A recent case granted asylum to a Russian family based on the idea that because their child had a handicap he’d be “persecuted” in Russia (April 22). The family gets to stay and taxpayers will have to pay for it all.

The opinions expanding immigrants’ ability to force their own entry into this country, overruling the people responsible for administering the immigration laws enacted by Congress, are written by the liberal judges on the court. It’s the same crowd that votes to overturn death penalty cases.

Federal law in the 9th Circuit (California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, Montana, Alaska and Hawaii) is different from the rest of the U.S. Judges in the 9th Circuit are, simply, results-oriented. When the outcome is predictable -- in favor of the immigrant -- regardless of the facts, of course everybody is going to appeal. The solution is for Congress to overrule the 9th Circuit judges and change the law to make applications for asylum a political rather than legal decision.

Thomas Keiser

Arcadia