Approaching the Bench from Inside the Immigration Court

United States immigration courts operate on the tension line that has existed for at least 135 years in the United States between our romantic notion of the United States as a land of immigrants and the aspirational notion of the United States as a nation of laws.

This is a book about our immigration courts seasoned with observations, commentary and some anecdotal humor.

The book also serves as a practical guide for attorneys and laymen who are interested in immigration matters within the jurisdiction of United States immigration courts.

In addition, the book provides a historical overview of the evolution of immigration law in relation to the role of the Immigration Judge, including suggestions for improvements in the institutions that enforce and administer United States immigration law; and the law itself.

One reform idea suggested within is to free immigration courts from the influence of the executive arm of government that enforces immigration law as well as policies promulgated in the same executive arm of government by taking the immigration courts out of the Department of Justice, where they now reside, and establishing them as independent legislative courts.

This reform would more effectively insulate the immigration courts from powerful influence of the executive arm of government and seemingly concomitant political machinations by establishing the check and balance of the judicial branch over the adjudication of immigration controversies.

William K. Zimmer is a retired Immigration Judge with 35 years of federal civil service experience, who has worked as a customs inspector, felony prosecutor in the State of Texas, immigration trial attorney and deputy district counsel in the former INS Houston litigation unit.

Judith A. Zimmer-Baker lives in the Sandia Mountains east of Albuquerque, New Mexico with her husband of 32 years. She graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan with a BS in biology and earned her MD degree from The University of Texas Medical School at Houston.