VOA慢速英语--A Day in US Immigration Court

 

Suzan stood before Immigration Judge John. M. Bryant last month at a courthouse in the American state of Virginia.

The El Salvadoran national asked the judge for more time in her case, which is already more than a few years old.

Immigration officials say Suzan entered the United States illegally. The government wants to send her back to El Salvador.

Suzan, a transgender woman, does not want to be identified in this story by her real name. She says she came to the United States as a teenager 20 years ago to flee oppression. She was immediately detained at the border, but later released.

Suzan avoided deportation³. For a while, she was homeless and sleeping on the streets. Six years ago, she was at a nightclub when people started fighting. She was not charged, but the police called immigration enforcement.

“They were about to deport² her when her boyfriend called me and said, ’look we’ve got this situation,’” Suzan’s lawyer Xavier Racine told VOA.

Suzan has since married her boyfriend, an American, and is asking for time to prepare documents requesting a legal pardon. The lawyer claims that if she returns to her home country, she faces the risk of punishment or death.

Judge Bryant hears the argument and gives Suzan a new court date. Her lawyer has until February 2018 to make the appeal.

This was one of the 233 cases planned for September 19 at the immigration court in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington D.C.

Case Backlog⁴

Outside the courtrooms hang eight lists where defendants⁵ must search for their names to find the number of the room where their case will be heard.

Each courtroom has white walls, no windows and 10 wooden benches that can seat about 40 people. If no seating is available, a person must wait outside the room.

The legal motions are settled quickly. Each one is settled in five to ten minutes.

Because immigration cases are civil actions, and not criminal, immigrants facing deportation do not have a right to a fast trial or free legal advice. If immigrants cannot find a lawyer willing to work for free, they are advised by the judge to hire an attorney.

In Arlington, judges were setting trial dates or hearings from 2018 to 2020.

The immigration data tracker website TRAC reports the backlog in immigration cases has risen to 632,000 nationwide.

Cost of Delay

Dana Leigh Marks is president of the National Association of Immigration Judges. She told VOA the organization has been critical of the immigration policies of both President Donald Trump⁶ and former President Barack Obama.

Delays can have harmful effects, Marks said. “What do you do if something happened to that person’s life, or the evidence becomes stale (and) it has to be done again? Their attorney could retire or become ill or no longer be able to take cases and they may have to get a new attorney.”

The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) says the United States has 334 immigration judges. In August, EOIR swore-in nine judges to fill positions in California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Ohio and Texas. President Trump’s 2018 budget called for hiring 75 more EOIR judges. It takes two years to hire an immigration judge, according to a Government Accounting⁷ Office report.

The Land of ZAR

Asylum⁸ seekers from a number of countries were among those appearing in Arlington immigration court on September 19. They came from Central America and the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.

Immigration lawyer Lysandra Pachuta was representing a 16-year-old. Federal law gives immigration officers primary jurisdiction⁹ over asylum claims that come from young people without a guardian¹⁰. That is because it seems less frightening for a child to sit down and tell his or her story to an officer in a small office than to present a case in a courtroom.

ZAR is a term for the Arlington Asylum Office. Judge Bryant called it “Land of ZAR” as a way to make children less afraid. He is firm with his rulings, but respectful with each person.

Bryant asked each child how they are doing in school and wished them “the best in life.”

Senorita Verde

Bryant set aside the last two hours of the day for children who were having their first hearing that day.

The court’s clerk began to call cases. About six children were in the room, some with parents and others with legal guardians¹¹ and attorneys.

An eight-year-old girl, wearing bright green clothing, stood up and walked to the respondent’s chair. She was with her mother and her younger brother.

Judge Bryant remembered that the Spanish word for green is verde.

“Senorita Verde, how are you today?” he asked.

The girl said that she was fine.

Judge Bryant got the most recent information on her case and set a new court date. He wished the girl and her brother a great school year.

The family will return to court in 2018.

Words in This Story

transgender – adj. of or relating to people whose gender¹ identify differs from the sex the person had at birth

gender – n. the behavioral or cultural qualities normally connected with one sex

deportation – n. the removal of expulsion of someone from a country

nightclub – n. a business providing music and space for dancing

hire – v. to employ the services of someone

backlog – n. unfinished or incomplete work

stale – adj. no longer new; getting old

jurisdiction – n. the power or right to govern something

1 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

2 deport   

vt.驱逐出境

参考例句：

• We deport aliens who slip across our borders.我们把偷渡入境的外国人驱逐出境。
• More than 240 England football fans are being deported from Italy following riots last night.昨晚的骚乱发生后有240多名英格兰球迷被驱逐出意大利。

3 deportation   

n.驱逐，放逐

参考例句：

• The government issued a deportation order against the four men.政府发出了对那4名男子的驱逐令。
• Years ago convicted criminals in England could face deportation to Australia.很多年以前，英国已定罪的犯人可能被驱逐到澳大利亚。

4 backlog   

n.积压未办之事

参考例句：

• It will take a month to clear the backlog of work.要花一个月的时间才能清理完积压的工作。
• Investment is needed to reduce the backlog of repairs.需要投资来減轻积压的维修工作。

5 defendants   

被告( defendant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The courts heard that the six defendants had been coerced into making a confession. 法官审判时发现6位被告人曾被迫承认罪行。
• As in courts, the defendants are represented by legal counsel. 与法院相同，被告有辩护律师作为代表。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

6 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

7 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

8 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

9 jurisdiction   

n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权

参考例句：

• It doesn't lie within my jurisdiction to set you free.我无权将你释放。
• Changzhou is under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu Province.常州隶属江苏省。

10 guardian   

n.监护人；守卫者，保护者

参考例句：

• The form must be signed by the child's parents or guardian. 这张表格须由孩子的家长或监护人签字。
• The press is a guardian of the public weal. 报刊是公共福利的卫护者。

11 guardians   

监护人( guardian的名词复数 )； 保护者，维护者

参考例句：

• Farmers should be guardians of the countryside. 农民应是乡村的保卫者。
• The police are guardians of law and order. 警察是法律和秩序的护卫者。