After Central American women and children poured across the border last year, the initial government reaction was to expedite their removal, to send them back as quickly as possible. 

Lance Curtright, a board certified immigration attorney, said those cases were given priority above thousands of others in an already backlogged court system.

A spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Immigration Review  that oversees the nation’s immigration courts, said 429,520 cases were pending at the end of 2014, of those 18,859 were in San Antonio. 

Many of those that are non-priority cases that don’t involve detention, now face a long wait before they ever see an immigration judge.

The EOIR spokeswoman said the agency is rescheduling those hearings for end of November 2019. 

Curtright said in the meantime, “The Central American kids need to be heard, too. It’s just why are they exclusively being heard?”

He said thousands of older, existing cases have been postponed or canceled due to a shortage of judges for the nation’s 59 immigration courts. 

Curtright said as a result, thousands of clients are now in limbo.

“Day by day, they live in constant anxiety, not knowing where they’ll be in several years,” Curtright said. “They can’t move on.” 

Veronica Hernandez of Honduras, who is seeking asylum in the U.S., said she’s been waiting two years for an immigration judge to grant a work permit.

Hernandez said without a work permit, she relies on whatever income she can make at flea markets to support her family in Honduras. “I’m desperate,” she said. 

The EOIR spokeswoman said the agency within the U.S. Justice Department continues to process priority cases and is “actively hiring” immigration judges and support staff.

“This is something I’m going to be working on to add more money to hire more judges,” said U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, who represents the 28th Congressional District. 

Instead of the Central American cases generated last year, Cuellar said, “We got to start with the old cases that have been around a long time.”

But he said it will take even more time. 

Cuellar said the funding may not be approved until the end of this year. If so, he said the judges will be hired the following year.

Yet the congressman also pointed out the backlog grows with every apprehension being made by U.S. Border Patrol in South Texas. 

Until more immigration judges are able to take multitude of pending cases, Curtright said, “Justice is stalled. Justice is delayed. Justice is not being delivered.”

The attorney said, “My view is they need to stop building jails and start hiring judges. It’s an enforcement issue really.