FALLS CHURCH, Va. — A Justice Department overhaul of the immigration appeals system, often the last stop for people fighting deportation, has prompted a barrage of unusually fast rulings rendered without explanation -- and an outcry about noncitizens' rights to due process.
The changes, pushed by Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, direct the beleaguered Board of Immigration Appeals to clear its 56,000-case backlog by March 25. The 23-member board, which reviews the rulings of 220 immigration judges nationwide, is often the last hope for foreigners who contend they face death, torture or other travails if forced to return to their homelands.
To meet the deadline, board members, who usually worked in panels of three and ruled after careful deliberation, are reviewing cases individually and ruling within minutes, often issuing just two-line decisions, according to a review conducted by The Times. And as the number of cases decided by the board has soared, so has the rate at which board members have ruled against foreigners facing deportation.
In turn, immigrants are appealing to the federal court system in unprecedented numbers, creating another backlog, The Times found in a survey of federal appellate courts.
Immigrant advocates say the speedup is the latest in a series of actions compromising the rights of noncitizens in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
"Does it make sense? The answer is no," said T. Alexander Aleinikoff, a law professor at Georgetown University and former Immigration and Naturalization Service general counsel. "We are already seeing results: Many, many cases are decided at a speed that makes it impossible to believe they got the scrutiny a person who faces removal from the United States deserves."
A Times computer study found that the board began dramatically increasing the number of summary rulings with no elaboration soon after Ashcroft proposed the changes in February, even though the new rules did not go into effect until Sept. 25. In March, for instance, 38% of the board's decisions were summary rulings, compared with just 9% the month before. By August, more than half the board's decisions were summary rulings, virtually all upholding the immigration judges' findings. From March 1 through Sept. 24, board members separately issued 16,275 decisions without explanation.
The denial rate has risen in tandem, The Times found. The board rejected 86% of its appeals in October, compared with 59% the previous October.
