North and South Carolina to get immigration court

By: JournalNow Staff | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 11, 2008

CHARLOTTE --

North and South Carolina will soon have a court dedicated to hearing illegal immigration cases from the two states.
Two judges will begin hearing cases in the Executive Office for Immigration Review Court starting Nov. 4.
Cases from the region had been sent to Atlanta, but that court was overwhelmed.
Nearly 2,900 immigration cases were heard from North Carolina and almost 500 from South Carolina in 2007, said Susan Eastwood, a spokeswoman for the office that runs the court.
"One of the reasons we put the court (in Charlotte) was because of the sustained caseload," she said.
Immigration judges determine whether people charged with violating federal immigration laws are deported.
Decisions can be challenged with the Board of Immigration Appeals.
Charlotte will be the 57th immigration court in the country.
A similar court is set to open in Omaha, Neb., later in October.
U.S. Rep Sue Myrick has been pressing for the court for years.
It was supposed to open in 2007 but was delayed.
"An immigration court will speed up illegal alien deportations," said Myrick, R-N.C. "It will also help legal immigrants playing by the rules because they will no longer have to travel to Atlanta to deal with immigration matters."
The court is more convenient to people in the Carolinas, but it's still a waste of tax money to go after people who "haven't done anything but are coming here to better themselves," said German De Castro, chairman of the Hispanic Democrats in Charlotte.
"It's costing us money when we don't have education, we don't have health care, we don't have good roads and we don't have transportation," he said.

North and South Carolina to get immigration court

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