North Carolina Immigration Court with the very high deportation rates is in Charlotte.
On Dec 14, 2022 an article was published in La Noticia, a Hispanic newspaper paper in North Carolina highlighting how immigration court judges in Charlotte, NC approve an unusually high number of deportation orders of Hispanics in their courts.
We decided to look into this some more to try to understand what was going on and why this immigration court in particular had a very high deportation rate. This court has 8 immigration judges. One judge in particular has the 4th highest deportation order rate in the country. That’s Judge George Riggs who has a 97.7% deportation rate.
Followed by Judge Stuart Couch at 94.3%
Amy Lee at 93.7%,
Barry Pettinato at 92.7%
Maria M. Lopez-Enriquez at 85.5% respectively.
The data revealed the vast majority of the cases that ended in a deportation order were associated with the defendant not having legal counsel.
You would think the judges would try to ensure or require that something be done about securing legal representation for the defendants either with court appointed counsel or contract counsel, paid by the court. We would expect due process and fair representation be provided to these defendants. Our thoughts on this, putting aside the merits of their cases, is that there’s a lack of mercy and compassion on behalf of the judges. These deportation orders are happening daily. So we investigated who appointed these judges.
Immigration judges are appointed by the attorney general of the United States. The attorney general is a cabinet level appointment chosen by the President of the United States. He/She serves at the pleasure of the President. The attorney general usually implements policies that the President supports. The top 5 judges in this article were all appointed by Democrat attorney generals. The attorney generals who appointed them were all appointed by a democrat President. That President was Barack Obama. These judges are still deporting thousands a year and separating families. Remember we only looked at Charlotte, NC. So we ask, what’s happening in other courts across the U.S.A.?
You may recall that President Obama was one of the most prolific deportation President’s in history. He deported some 3 million during his two terms. It seems to us, from the data, that these judges lack compassion and mercy towards immigrants and are the ones separating families. We are still seeing the effects these judge have on our families in a post Obama Presidency.
Below are the democrat appointed judges, with their deportation rates, which countries are affected and who appointed them.
George Riggs 97.7% –Appointed by AG Loretta Lynch (Democrat)
The largest group of asylum seekers appearing before Judge Riggs came from Honduras. Individuals from this country made up 30.2% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Riggs were: El Salvador (24.8%), Guatemala (20.3%), Mexico (13.3%), Brazil (3.1%).
Stuart Couch 94.3%- Appointed by AG Eric Holder (Democrat)
The largest group of asylum seekers appearing before Judge Couch came from Honduras. Individuals from this country made up 27.2% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Couch were: El Salvador (26.1%), Guatemala (20.6%), Mexico (16.7%), Romania (1.2%).
Amy Lee 93.7 Appointed by AG Eric Holder (Democrat)
The largest group of asylum seekers appearing before Judge Lee came from Honduras. Individuals from this country made up 24.9% of her caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Lee were: El Salvador (24.2%), Guatemala (22.7%), Mexico (17.5%), Brazil (3.3%).
Barry Pettinato. 92.7%- Appointed by AG Eric Holder (Democrat)
The largest group of asylum seekers appearing before Judge Pettinato came from Honduras. Individuals from this country made up 33.3% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Pettinato were: El Salvador (24.2%), Guatemala (19.5%), Mexico (15.7%), Ivory Coast (Cote D’ivoire) (1.2%).
Maria M. Lopez-Enriquez 85.5%- Appointed by AG Eric Holder (Democrat)
The largest group of asylum seekers appearing before Judge Lopez-Enriquez came from El Salvador. Individuals from this country made up 30.0% of her caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Lopez-Enriquez were: Honduras (27.3%), Guatemala (20.0%), Mexico (10.0%), Haiti (2.7%). See Figure 4.
Jeffery R. Nance 85.2%- Appointed by AG Jeff Session (Republican)
The largest group of asylum seekers appearing before Judge Nance came from Honduras. Individuals from this country made up 37.9% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Nance were: Mexico (21.1%), Guatemala (15.2%), El Salvador (13.7%), Russia (3.1%). See Figure 4.
Theresa Holmes-Simmons 83.4%- Appointed by AG Janet Reno (Democrat)
The largest group of asylum seekers appearing before Judge Holmes-Simmons came from Honduras. Individuals from this country made up 37.7% of her caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Holmes-Simmons were: El Salvador (30.8%), Guatemala (14.5%), Mexico (8.1%), Brazil (1.4%). See Figure 4.
Rodger C. Harris 81.5%- Appointed by AG Alberto Gonzalez (Republican)
The largest group of asylum seekers appearing before Judge Harris came from El Salvador. Individuals from this country made up 31.6% of his caseload. Other nationalities in descending order of frequency appearing before Judge Harris were: Honduras (31.5%), Guatemala (15.7%), Mexico (10.5%), Venezuela (2.5%).
This data is provided by TRAC Immigration supported by Syracuse University in New York State. We pulled the data from the link below.
https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/judgereports/
We ask, “Why is this not being covered in the English media”? Or Spanish TV and Radio media. If these were all Republican judges appointed by a Republican president, would the media cover it? We think it’s a fair question. Don’t you?
We are a non-partisan organization.
