NEW ORLEANS—The courtrooms handling illegal immigration cases here are tucked into the fifth floor of a white skyscraper on the bank of the Mississippi River. A few floors below is a Saks Fifth Avenue, reputed to be one of the tony department store’s most profitable locations, and a few floors above is a U.S. passport office so busy admittance is barred without an appointment.
The New Orleans immigration courts have none of that bustle. Over five days during a two-week period in June that officials described as typical this year, two active courtrooms heard about 50 combined cases each morning, wrapping up business by 11 a.m. even though all those cases were continued.
