TRAC, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which describes itself as a data gathering, data research and data distribution organization at Syracuse University issues statistical reports about immigration court matters. TRAC reports analyze backlogs in the immigration courts and compared statistics about grant rates for different types of cases in the different immigration courts and by immigration judges. On November 9, 2010, it issued a report, “ICE Seeks to Deport the Wrong People,” which analyzed the results of immigration court proceedings…

I get these calls every week. A family member of an alien or the alien himself or herself calls and tells me that the alien is in Mexico. He or she was encountered by ICE or CBPand signed papers to allow his or her return to Mexico without seeing an immigration judge. I ask, “Why did he sign?” The answer is invariably that the officers explained that if the alien did not sign and go back to Mexico he or…

On August 30, 2010, the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the body that contains the immigration courts and Board of Immigration Appeals announced that it was changing the way people can access court information through their telephone number, 1-800-898-7180. The way it is done is by calling and entering an aliens identification number, their “Alien Number,: also called their “A-number.” Then you could hear about court dates for pending cases and outcomes in concluded cases. The implementation of the system…