Congressman Ruben Hinojosa Sponsors Bill to Increase the Number of Federal Judgeships Along Southwest Border of U.S.

Press Release

Congressman Rubén Hinojosa introduced the Southwest Border Judgeship Expansion Act (H.R.-2365) that will provide additional federal district court judgeships for the border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. If passed, the bill would add four more federal judgeships to Texas' Southern District.
"We have seen an increase of arrests and prosecutions along the U.S./Mexico border, enough so that it is imperative that we increase the number of our federal judges to relieve the burden of the heavy caseloads the judges are experiencing now," said Rep. Hinojosa.
The Southwest Border Judgeship Expansion Act calls for a total of 38 new permanent federal judgeships in four border states and seven temporary federal judgeships. With this legislation Texas will have 10 additional permanent federal judgeships and one temporary. The number of new permanent and temporary judgeships is based on the 2011 recommendations by the Judicial Conference of the United States.
The State of Texas Eastern, Western and Southern Districts rank 2nd, 3rd, and 4th respectively, with the largest number of federal caseloads among all 50 states.
"In Texas' Southern District, there were 1,381 criminal total cases in 1995," said Rep. Hinojosa. "According to the Judicial Conference, in the year 2008, the caseload was 6,586. With the proposed addition of new federal judges, our federal courts will be able to process cases on a timely basis, and thus alleviate the current bottleneck caused by the continuing increase of federal cases."
This is a companion bill to S. 1032 introduced by Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Tom Udall (D-NM).

Source