Executive Office for Immigration Review: caseload performance reporting needs improvement: report to the Chairman, Committee on Finance

Original publisher: [Washington, D.C.]: U.S. Govt. Accountability Office, [2006] OCLC Number: (OCoLC)86107576 Subject: Emigration and immigration. Excerpt: ... attorney who is prosecuting the case. DHS must prove that an immigrant is in the United States unlawfully and should be removed. In most cases, the immigration judge issues an oral decision at the conclusion of the individual merits hearing. The immigration judge may order the alien removed or may grant relief. If the immigration judge decides that removability has not been established by DHS, he or she may terminate the proceedings. Once a case is completed, if the immigrant or DHS disagrees with the immigration judge's decision, either party or both parties may appeal the decision to the BIA. If the BIA ruling is adverse to the immigrant, the immigrant generally may file an appeal in the federal court system. According to EOIR, if DHS disagrees with the BIA's ruling, in rare instances, the case may be referred to the Attorney General for review. Immigration Court Caseload Continues to Increase; Some Progress Has Been Made in Completing Oldest Proceedings Awaiting Adjudication From fiscal year 2000 through fiscal year 2005, the number of newly filed Immigration Courts ' cases outpaced cases completed. Consequently, the immigration courts ' Caseload Increases as caseload increased about 39 percent, from about 381,000 cases at the end More Newly Filed Cases of fiscal year 2000 to about 531,000 cases at the end of fiscal year 2005. Are Received than Cases During the same period, in 4 of 6 years, the number of newly filed cases Completed received was greater than the number of cases completed. The number of newly filed cases grew about 44 percent, from about 252,000 in fiscal year 2000, to about 363,000 in fiscal year 2005. On the other hand, the number of completed cases increased about 37 percent, from about 253,000 cases in fiscal year 2000, to about 347,000 cases in fiscal year 2005. ( See fig. 2. ) Pa...