#Immigration #courts are overstating their performance and failing to keep up with their caseload, according to a new report by the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General.

The 80-page report critiquing the Executive Office for Immigration Review declares that "immigration court performance reports are incomplete and overstate the actual accomplishments of these courts."

For example, auditors found, administrative events such as changes of venue and transfers are reported as completions even though the immigration courts have made no decisions on whether to remove aliens from the United States. In the sample of 1,785 closed cases, 484 administrative events were counted as completions.

Remember, these courts are very, very busy; they receive some 325,000 cases a year. The OIG auditors say that:

"Despite overstating case receipts and completions, EOIR’s immigration court data still showed that it was not able to process the volume of work. From FY 2006 through FY 2010, the overall efficiency of the courts did not improve even though there was an increase in the number of judges. In 4 of those 5 years, the number of proceedings received was greater than the number of proceedings completed."