Connecticut U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Tuesday attended immigration court proceedings in Hartford, where he said he witnessed “purposeful chaos.”
“A system that is running amok and doing injustice, and it is intentional injustice, designed to deport as many people as possible as quickly as the system is able to do it, regardless of the merits of these cases,” Blumenthal told reporters outside the Abraham A. Ribicoff Federal Building in downtown Hartford.
Blumenthal said he was inspired to attend immigration court amid an uptick in immigration enforcement in Danbury and elsewhere around Connecticut in recent weeks.
“Many of the people who were detained in Danbury last week or the week before will eventually come here, and, if history is any guide, they will be deported, in part because of the absence of real justice here,” Blumenthal said.
“All too often, we have focused on the detention of people, the seizure of people, which needs attention,” he said. “But there’s also a kind of behind-the-scenes set of procedures here that also deserves attention.”
Blumenthal said he would urge his colleagues in Congress to take a look at reforming the immigration court system.
Connecticut Public has reached out to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, which operates federal immigration courts, to ask for their response to Blumenthal.
Blumenthal said he witnessed understaffing, an overwhelming caseload, and an administrative judge presiding over the court proceedings remotely. He said none of the people appearing before the judge Tuesday had criminal records, and few had attorneys.
“They have nobody to plead their case,” Blumenthal said. “They have no one to marshal evidence for them. They have no one to advise them how to fill out applications for asylum. They're on their own in circumstances that are deeply challenging, not the least of which is they don't speak English.”
Blumenthal said there was one interpreter available in court on Tuesday.
