EOIR Swears in 11 New Immigration Judges

On June 16, 2017, the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) announced that it had sworn in 11 new immigration judges [link]. The 11 new immigration judges were selected by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The 11 new judges will serve on 10 immigration courts, with the Otay Mesa Immigration Court welcoming two new immigration judges.

With the 11 new judges, there are now 326 immigration judges serving at immigration courts across the United States.

The following are the 11 new immigration judges and the immigration courts on which each will serve:

Olga Atta (Otay Mesa Immigration Court)
David Cheng (Newark Immigration Court)
Scott D. Criss (Atlanta Immigration Court)
Christopher M. Greer (Salt Lake City Immigration Court)
Catherine E. Halliday-Roberts (Otay Mesa Immigration Court)
Elizabeth G. Lang (Chicago Immigration Court)
Eric W. Marsteller (New Orleans Immigration Court)
Jennifer L. Page-Lozano (Miami Immigration Court)
Helaine R. Perlman (Arlington Immigration Court)
Frank T. Pimentel (Port Isabel Immigration Court)
Michael S. Pleters (El Paso Service Center)

(Note: Otay Mesa is in San Diego and Port Isabel is in Texas)

The EOIR is facing increasingly large backlogs of immigration cases. We addressed the issue in the context of a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the subject [see blog]. Regarding the backlog, the Acting Director of EOIR, James McHenry [see blog], explained that “[t]he continued hiring of immigration judges as quickly as possible is an important component of EOIR's multi-step effort to address the backlog…”