US Appeal Courts flooded by asylum seekers

The Los Angeles Times reports although the trend is nationwide, it is particularly bad in the San Francisco-based US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. In the year ending June 30, 2001, the immigration caseload was 965. It skyrocketed to 4 835 cases in the year ending in June 2004. ‘Three years ago, immigration cases were 8% of our calendar,’ said 9th Circuit Judge Michael Daly Hawkins. ‘Today it is 48%.’ Much of the blame for the problem has been laid on the Board of Immigration Appeals, a quasi-judicial body appointed by the US Attorney-General, which has been criticised as being inefficient. Full report in the Los Angeles Times