Here are three things you should know about the "Dedicated Docket" in immigration courts.
1) San Francisco is one of the twelve cities across the United States where the Dedicated Docket takes place.
In May of 2021, the Biden Administration implemented the Dedicated Docket in numerous immigration courts nationwide, including the San Francisco Immigration Court. Families whose cases are on the Dedicated Docket have a case completion goal of only 300 days, which is hardly enough time for most newly arrived families to hire counsel and for those attorneys that they hire to adequately prepare their cases for trial. Two years later, the docket continues to present ongoing challenges with due process, including unreasonable deadlines, hostility toward pro se respondents, and inability to access counsel.
2) The Biden Administration has provided limited support to families on the Dedicated Docket by way of Legal Orientation Programs, but they are not an adequate substitute for full-scope legal representation.
The San Francisco Immigration Court has an Immigration Court Help Desk, which has assisted families on the docket with preparing pro se asylum applications and translating identity documents into English for submission to the court. Nevertheless, many of the families on the Dedicated Docket have struggled to obtain legal representation for the full-scope of their case. According to recent statistics, only 43% of Dedicated Docket cases have found representation. Immigration attorneys assist respondents with their cases by drafting written declarations in support of their asylum claims, legal briefs to establish eligibility for their requested forms of relief, and preparing country conditions packets to demonstrate why their home countries are either unable or unwilling to protect them from their persecutors. They also ensure respondents are ready for their final hearings by thoroughly preparing them to provide direct testimony in support of their claims and assisting them with answering questions posed by government attorneys. Because of the accelerated nature of the Dedicated Docket, many local immigration attorneys from both the private bar and non-profit sector have to turn down cases on the docket for lack of capacity.
3) JDC has joined immigration advocates nationwide in calling for an end to the Dedicated Docket.
In October 2022, JDC assisted with drafting a letter directed towards Secretary Mayorkas, Attorney General Garland, and Deputy Assistant Lawrence, calling attention to the injustices on the docket and asking that the Administration either end the docket or take steps to provide additional procedural safeguards on the docket. On June 22, 2023, JDC, along with 75 other organizations nationwide, signed off on a follow up letter, pointing out that the docket continues to neither be fair, nor expedient, and calling on the Administration once more to halt the docket.
