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Southwest Border Courts' Situation Alarms Judiciary

Chief probation and pretrial services officers talked about "shoveling cases" and "assembly line" justice. Judges worried aloud if, driven by necessity, cutting corners was good for the system. In the vernacular, that's the dilemma faced by the southwest border courts. Over 130 federal judges, chief probation and pretrial services officers, and clerks from the five district border courts met February 14-15 to discuss the worsening caseload situation in their courts and, hopefully, to find solutions. They also heard from a U.S. Senator who supports more resources for courts, prosecutors and prisons to handle the tidal wave of cases resulting from increased border anti-crime initiatives. The participants only meeting was organized by the Administrative Office and the Federal Judicial Center, but the impetus for the meeting came from the judges themselves, led by Chief Judge Carolyn Dineen King (5^th Cir.).

Chief Judge Carolyn Dineen King (5th Cir.), at the podium, helped kick off the conference at which judges and court staff met to discuss solutions to the southwest border courts situation.

They came from the Southern and Western Districts of Texas, the District of Arizona, the District of New Mexico, and the Southern District of California; these are the courts where 26 percent of all federal court criminal filings—mostly drug and immigration cases—are now concentrated. According to some estimates, by the year 2002 the five southwest border districts will handle almost a third of all federal criminal cases in the entire United States.

Administrative Office Director Leonidas Ralph Mecham has given assistance to border courts in the form of additional positions and funds in clerks' and probation and pretrial services offices. Personnel from around the country have been encouraged to help out in the courts as temporary duty officers. But it's still not enough.

Senator Pete V. Domenici (R-NM) told conference participants, "While most Americans approve of the drug busts and the large-scale arrests of people seeking to enter this country illegally, I'm sure very few clearly understand the ripple effect these policies have on our court system." Domenici, who is chair of the Senate Budget Committee, said it is "unfair and shortsighted for Congress to demand more law enforcement at the border without a corresponding increase in judicial and prison resources." He expressed support for the Judicial Conference recommendation to create 13 new district judgeship positions in the southwest border courts, but made it clear action on this proposal probably will not occur until a new administration takes office next year. Until then, the Senator suggested, Congress could provide more court resources to lighten the load.

Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-NM)

This was bad news for Chief Judge Marilyn Huff (S. D. Calif.) who says her court, which has no judicial vacancies, needs new judges. "We've squeezed all the fat—if there ever was any—out of the system," said Huff. "We've experimented with ways to handle the caseload. Visiting judges are wonderful, but they're not the same as judges who can take a full draw of cases. And our senior judges who help our district survive are extremely senior. What more can we do? The answer keeps coming back: We need new district judges." Statistics, according to Huff, show the caseload has gone up astronomically, while judicial re-sources remain flat. Only one of the five border courts has received new judgeships since 1990. Three were authorized for the District of Arizona last congressional session, but those positions are not filled, and recently two judges in the district took senior status. Other courts have similar pro-blems, and at the conference judges from each district talked about how they were coping. Chief Judge King kicked off the conference, noting different techniques that were being used to handle similar problems. Chief Judge John E. Conway (D. N.M.), whose district hosted the conference, said he picked up some good ideas. "Hopefully, others did too," he said. "We all share problems, and our solutions are each a bit different."

The conference touched on different management concerns, for example, expediting jury selection so that jurors can avoid multiple trips to remote border locations; effectively using magistrate judges; locating and retaining qualified interpreters; providing adequate facilities where attorneys and defendants can meet; and managing the logistics of finding housing, transportation, and security for detainees, some of whom must be transported to the court from hundreds of miles away.

One initiative that was discussed addressed a common problem in the border courts: what to do with material witnesses. "A `coyote' brings 20 Mexican citizens across the border," said King. "He's arrested, indicted, and two or three Mexicans are held as material witnesses. Some courts have held them in detention, often for several months. The District of New Mexico puts the material witnesses in halfway houses where they also can get jobs. In that district, there have been problems with witnesses disappearing in only one percent of the cases."

Even before the conference was over, King noted that some districts were holding their own mini-conferences to discuss problems and potential solutions. Conway said his district will be meeting this month in Las Cruces, New Mexico, one of the hardest hit of the border court locations. District clerks and probation and pretrial services officers plan to talk regularly about common problems. Representatives from the Department of Justice also spoke at the conference about its Border Patrol Initiative. In the just-completed Phase 1, which covered southern California and El Paso, DOJ claims the initiative has given it "effective control," with a sharp decline in local crime. Apprehensions in southern California, according to spokesmen, had started at 600,000 and were down to 200,000. Although many courts participating in the conference are inundated at even this level of apprehensions, the discussion, said King, at least "offered us the prospect of improved communication with DOJ at the local level."

Participants agreed that the conference was as candid as it was productive, and a planning group will compile a master list of recommendations. "People were given a perspective on what's actually happening throughout the border districts, which is something you don't get sitting in one court," said King. "We've improved communications among the courts. But in the end it is all about people and money. We need Congress to understand why we're asking for more judges, probation and pretrial officers, and clerks, and why they should support the Judiciary's budget."