Immigrants in Colorado are being told they must wait up to five years to have their cases heard in immigration court, partly due to hearings being held for a surge of immigrants from Central America.
The Denver Post reports that immigration courts nationally are backed up but that the problem is worse in Colorado because two of its three immigration judges are hearing cases by video from a new detention facility in Dilley, Texas. Judges Donn Livingston and Eileen Trujillo were assigned to handle the cases of children and families who crossed the Mexican border in September. They were originally held in Artesia, New Mexico.
Their assignment is set to end in May but a Justice Department declined to say whether the remote hearings would end as scheduled.
