Updates on Efforts to Address Immigration in the State Courts
In May 2008, SJI finalized FY 2008 awards for the Strategic Initiatives Grants (SIG) program. This year, SJI is using the SIG Program to focus on the impact of immigration in the state courts. Four priorities will guide these efforts: 1) increased understanding and awareness about the impacts of immigration in the state courts; 2) development and testing of state and local approaches for addressing the impact of immigration in the state courts; 3) enhanced state and local capacity to improve court services affected by immigration; and 4) the establishment of effective partnerships for addressing the impact of immigration on court processes. Two grants were awarded; one to the Center for Public Policy Studies (CPPS); and another to support a collaborative effort between the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) and the National Judicial College (NJC).
One of the first steps is to identify the major challenges and opportunities state courts need to address the impact of immigration. To date there has been no systematic, comprehensive documentation of the issues. There is a substantial body of literature that discusses immigration issues in general, but not how those issues affect courts and court services. To address this gap, CPPS is now preparing a comprehensive inventory of where and how immigration issues are affecting the courts. This inventory will be used throughout the project as CPPS works with specific jurisdictions serving as pilot sites to prepare both lessons learned and suggested procedures and programs for the courts.
In addition to this inventory, CPPS will be working with the selected sites and NJC to develop a bench book to help judges address the practical implications of immigration. Among the issues to be included in this bench book are: bail decisions; decisions regarding eligibility for and conditions of probation; taking guilty pleas and the effect of guilty pleas on immigration status; and other intersections of federal and state laws. As these projects move forward, SJI will continue to provide updates in future editions of the E-SJI News and on the SJI website.
