A recent report found that the federal immigration court system, plagued by an unmanageable number of immigration cases, is nearing a crisis point.

The report, prepared by the law firm Arnold & Porter LLP for the American Bar Association, called for comprehensive reform of immigration law and the policies of those organizations that enforce it. The report identified urgent problems in six major areas: the Department of Homeland Security, the immigration courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, circuit court judicial review, representation, and overall system restructuring.

Karen Grisez, chair of the American Bar Association, says that the number of cases in immigration courts has been "reaching crisis proportions." In a country with 12 million undocumented immigrants, there are only 57 immigration courts and 231 immigration judges responsible for all deportation hearings, asylum petitions, bail decisions and related issues.

One lawyer said that in her 17 years of practicing immigration law, she had seen the number of cases first double, then triple. "Judges are doing the best with what they have to work with," she said. "It sometimes seems like with 30 people in the room, you certainly get the impression that things need to get done quickly."

The state of Maryland, for example, has roughly 250,000 undocumented immigrants but only a single immigration court located in Baltimore, and five immigration judges. According to the report, immigration judges must deal with upwards of 1,200 cases a year, on average.

The increase in cases is not just due to an increase in immigration, Grisez says; it is also the result of policies and procedures put in place by the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The report recommends that lawyers and officials choose to hear cases selectively, only after consideration, and give priority to the most urgent cases; it also advises against wasting time and resources by monitoring people eligible for amnesty.

The report also criticizes Homeland Security for deporting legal and long-term residents on account of minor offenses, beginning deportation proceedings against people eligible to become long-term residents, detaining undocumented immigrants at locations far from their homes, and sometimes failing to find lawyers to represent them.

But despite these problems, the Obama administration moved yesterday to cut funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) in order to save $400 million. The new plan would require that the federal government subsidize state and local governments to cover some of the expenses of detaining undocumented immigrants. This is the second year in a row that Obama has cut the program's funding, hoping to use the money to increase border security.

The original rationale for the plan was that since the federal government was unable to ensure border security, allowing undocumented immigrants to flow into the country, it should compensate local governments for the expenses incurred when those immigrants violate local law and are imprisoned.