House Panel Votes Yes On Independent Immigration Courts

The House Judiciary Committee voted 24-12 to advance a bill that would remove immigration courts from the U.S. Department of Justice and make them independent of the executive branch.

Shortly after midnight on Wednesday night, the committee voted along party lines to send the Real Courts, Rule of Law Act of 2022 to the full U.S. House of Representatives for consideration.

The bill would help shield immigration proceedings from the ebbs and flows of policy changes that shift with each presidential administration, according to Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who authored the bill and serves as the chair of the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship.

"Decades of bureaucratic and political meddling by administrations of both parties have undermined and eroded public trust in the immigration court system. Currently, the system is neither fair nor orderly," Lofgren said in a statement Wednesday. "The full House and Senate should now follow the committee's lead and pass the Real Courts, Rule of Law Act to take politics out of the immigration courts system once and for all."

"The unfairness of the immigration courts weighs heavily, especially in my district," added Rep. Sylvia R. Garcia, D-Texas. "Many of my constituents in Houston … we see immigration judges denying approximately 98% of petitions to asylum, as opposed to our friends in districts like New York with a denial rate as low as 5%. Somebody, please just tell me how that's fair?"