Bush Admin Admits Its Immigration Courts Suck

When President Bush's ever loyal attorney general, Alberto Gonzales complains about "intemperate or even abusive conduct" in a system that "must improve" you know that the nation's immigration courts (which are an executive branch administrative hearing office with 215 judges from which appeals are available ultimately to the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal, rather than true Article III courts), you know the situation is bad.

The problems are mostly a product of the actions of Gonzales' predecessor, John Ashcroft, who gutted the judicial staff of the courts, which were already struggling to meet case loads, and singled out judges who had been fair minded in the past, in the process.