Congress has approved funding for 55 new Immigration Judges nationwide, and U.S. Rep Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo) says many of the judges will be stationed here, to relieve the backlog of immigration cases following last summer's surge, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.

  "San Antonio, Dilley, and a couple other places will be getting more immigration judges," Cuellar said.

  There is a backlog of some 77,000 illegal immigration cases still working their way through the courts, Cuellar said.

  "We should give these people their day in court, and let a judge decide whether that person gets deported," he said.

  The lack of immigration judges is at the heart of the growing controversy over the holding of immigrant women and children at federal family detention centers in Dilley and Karnes City.

  A group of Democratic Congressmen will tour the Karnes City facility next week, as they continue to press their case for the women and children who are housed there to be released.

  The Obama Administration’s policy of interning Central American women who arrived in the U.S. last summer thinking having a child with them would be their golden ticket to U.S. residence has angered both sides of the aisle.

  Liberals don't like the idea of locking up individuals indefinitely, especially women who have committed to crime except for illegal entry and are no threat to U.S. security.

  But conservatives say the conditions at the Karnes City and Dilley facilities, with its ample food, comfortable lodgings, and big screen TVs are far nicer than anything the women experienced back home in Honduras, and actually acts as a lure, attracting more illegal immigrants into the U.S.

  Cuellar says the bottom line is to get the women due process as quickly as possible.

  "That individual who has the claim will get deported, or will be told they get to stay in the United States," he said.  "But at least they will get their day in court."