Denver’s federal immigration court is understaffed and overbooked, with not enough judges on the books to be able to cover the vast jurisdiction of the state, which includes parts of Wyoming and all of Colorado. The result has been Denver achieving a new but less than stellar record; Colorado now comes with the longest delays of anywhere in the whole of the United States.
The average waiting period is now 933 days, with 9420 cases currently pending to be heard. Ryan Warner, the host of Colorado Matters, was told in an interview by Denver immigration attorney Jennifer Casey that the rhetoric demanding a crackdown on immigration in the Presidential campaign could well result in the situation getting even worse.
“If you look at the immigration courts over the last three years in Colorado, what we’ve seen is a reduction by about 50 percent of the immigration judges here locally,” Casey revealed. “So we went from six judges in 2013 and we’re now down to three judges in 2013.”
Casey went on to say that that many of the immigrants are not refugees seeking asylum that they may or may not be given, but people who already are eligible to get a green card or permanent residence because of a qualifying family member, but who are stuck waiting for the legal approval they need to begin getting on with their lives, including being able to travel, live and work legally on a permanent basis in the United States.