With more than 7,500 cases pending and an average waiting time in immigration court of 529 days, Colorado immigration attorneys are pleased that the Denver court has been chosen as a national pilot for weeding out low-priority cases and speeding up the system.
Immigration courts in Denver and Baltimore were chosen for a six-week pilot program that will have teams of immigration-court prosecutors combing through the dockets in those two courts. They will try to determine which immigrants qualify for prosecutorial discretion under federal guidelines issued last summer.
Attorneys from the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department will weed out and close the cases of immigrants deemed low-priority. That does not mean they will dismiss the cases: If the immigrants commit a crime or a new immigration violation, their cases could be reopened.
Closing the cases also does not mean illegal immigrants will suddenly be legal. They won’t have any lawful immigration status.
“Denver has such a high backlog. So this is an effective place to test the value of this,” said Bryon Large, a senior immigration attorney with the Joseph Law Firm and co-chairman of the Colorado Immigration Lawyers Association.
Cases that are not considered enforcement priorities, under Department of Homeland Security guidelines, include those involving immigrants who have served or are serving in the military, children who have been in the United States for more than five years and are in school, and immigrants who came to the United States under the age of 16 and who are pursuing or who have completed higher education.
They also include victims of domestic violence or human trafficking, those who suffer from serious mental or physical conditions, and those who have a long-term presence in the United States and an immediate family member who is a citizen.
“We will have a better idea what guidance exists, and we will have greater predictability,” said Denver immigration attorney Dario Aguirre about the pilot program.
Nancy Lofholm: 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com
