Eximirr I (From the Washington Post. May 15. 1997J CAses PI1.X UP AS JUDOF.RHiPS REMAIN VACANT (By Sue Anne Pressley) Laeru. TX.-The drug and illegal immigrant cases keep coming. No sooner does Chief U.S. District Judge George Haze clear one case than a stack of new cases plies up. He takes work home at night. on weekends. "Its 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 youve got the sentence reports you did two months before. There Is no stop. no break at all. year In and year out. here they come. "Weve already got more than we can say grace over down here." he said. This IF 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 two 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 everin. creasing numbers. Judge Kazens docket has grown and grown. He has suggested. so far unsuccessfully. that a judgeship in Houston be reassigned to the Rio Orande Valley to help cope.
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illegal immigrant illegal immigration Border Patrol