Federal judge says Real ID Act puts "chokehold" on courts News
Federal judge says Real ID Act puts "chokehold" on courts

[JURIST] Judge William G. Young, chief judge of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts [official website] in Boston, issued a 107-page ruling Tuesday chastising Congress for a "virtually unprecedented" attack on judicial independence and for putting a "chokehold" on federal courts by removing their authority to hear deportation cases. Young says the recently-passed Real ID Act [legislation summary; JURIST report] makes it harder for immigrants to gain amnesty by requiring deportation cases to be heard in a federal court of appeals. The case in question concerned Frank Enwonwu, a Nigerian national and former government informant, facing deportation because of a 1986 drug conviction. Young wrote, "Congress does not much care about immigrant aliens, even those who, after endangering themselves assisting our law enforcement efforts to stem international drug trade, are deported into the hands of the very drug traders upon whom they have informed." AP has more.