Racked with a backlog approaching 600,000 cases, the nation’s 58 immigration courts over the last decade have taken longer to rule on deportations, asylum claims and other matters despite hiring more judges and more than doubling their annual budget, according to a new Government Accountability Office report.
Andrew Becker
Reporter
Andrew Becker is a reporter for Reveal, covering border, national and homeland security issues, as well as weapons and gun trafficking. He has focused on waste, fraud and abuse – with stories ranging from border corruption to the expanding use of drones and unmanned aerial vehicles, from the militarization of police to the intersection of politics and policy related to immigration, from terrorism to drug trafficking. Becker's reporting has appeared in The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Newsweek/The Daily Beast and on National Public Radio and PBS/FRONTLINE, among others. He received a master's degree in journalism from UC Berkeley. Becker is based in Reveal's Emeryville, California, office.
Posted inBorder Patrol, National Security, The Wall
Border wall moving forward, but feds won’t release bidders’ names
Although Congress has blocked funding this year to build President Donald Trump’s promised border wall, his administration announced Friday it is moving forward with plans to develop designs.
Posted inNational Security
DOJ used Facebook to tell terrorist he won’t be US citizen anymore
The social network, already a way to serve divorce papers in some courts, most likely was used by the government to tell a confessed al-Qaida operative about his denaturalization.
Posted inThe Trump Era, The Wall
Senate Democrats answer questions, raise concerns with Trump’s wall
Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee estimate that building a wall along most of the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border could cost $70 billion or more.
Posted inThe Trump Era
Backlogs, vacancies may foil plan for tougher immigration enforcement
The Justice Department’s push for what Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week called the “Trump era” of tougher immigration enforcement will come up against an already strained federal court system.
Posted inThe Trump Era, The Wall
These border bids are subtle resistance to Trump’s wall
Cacti and solar panels: Quiet strategies for slowing down the bidding process for a border wall.
Posted inThe Wall
Bids to design Trump’s wall will have to wait, again
The Trump administration has pushed back the date for when U.S. Customs and Border Protection will start accepting design proposals for a border wall, with no firm date in sight.
Posted inAccountability, Immigration, The Trump Era, The Wall
The deadliest route to the American dream
As the Trump administration moves forward with the president’s promised U.S.-Mexico border wall, questions persist about the effectiveness of immigration enforcement that has forced migrants into increasingly deadly terrain.
Posted inAccountability, The Trump Era, The Wall
The Wall: Explore the US-Mexico border fence
Bids are out for President Donald Trump’s border wall and a draft plan envisions fencing and walls along at least 1,200 additional miles of the Mexican border by 2020. Here’s the status of the current border fence based on data we’ve been collecting and analyzing for years.
Posted inAccountability, Border Patrol, National Security, The Trump Era, The Wall
Trump’s border wall bidding to begin
U.S. Customs and Border Protection plans to start accepting design proposals for a prototype wall along the U.S.-Mexico border early next month.