Speech #1100008838

President. I rise today to introduce legislation that authorizes the Federal judgeships recommended by the 2005 Judicial Conference for our U.S. District Courts that are overloaded with immigration cases. It is imperative to equip our Federal agencies with the assets they need to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws. Including courts which must adjudicate criminal immigration cases that appear on their dockets. 53. Pt. 2 January 25. 2007 This includes our U.S. District Courts. which must try repeat immigration law violators who are charged with a felony in U.S. District Court. The legislation I am introducing today creates eleven new Federal judgeships recommended by the Judicial Conference for the four U.S. Districts in which more than 50 percent of their criminal cases are immigration cases. Each of these Districts shares a border Mexico. In fiscal year 2004. the Western District of Texas had 5.599 criminal case filings. 3.688 of those cases. or 65 percent. dealt with immigration. The District Court of Arizona had 4.007 criminal filings. of which 2.404 cases. thats 59 percent. were immigration filings. The Southern District of California had 2.206 immigration filings. 64 percent of the 3.400 total criminal filings. Lastly. the District of New Mexico had 2.497 criminal filings. 60 percent. or 1.502 cases. were immigration cases. Based on these caseloads. we should already be giving these Districts new judgeships. But to increase border security and immigration enforcement efforts. as we have over the past few years. without equipping these courts to handle the even larger immigration caseloads that they are expected to face would amount to willful negligence. The New Mexico District Chief Judge. Martha Vazquez. wrote me a letter in May of 2006 about the situation her 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 eightyfive 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." The Albuquerque Tribune has also documented the burden on our Southwest border District Courts. An April 17. 2006 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.