Two new immigration judges for Otay Mesa

The immigration court at Otay Mesa Detention Center has two new judges.

Attorney Samantha Begovich and Navy judge advocate Colleen Glaser-Allen were among a group of 20 new judges announced on Friday by the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the agency in the Department of Justice responsible for immigration courts.

Begovich has worked as a deputy district attorney for the county of San Diego for about 14 years before taking on her new post making decisions about the lives of people hoping to live in the United States who are held inside the Otay Mesa facility.

Glaser-Allen, who will become assistant chief immigration judge for the court at Otay Mesa, previously served as an active duty judge advocate in the U.S. Navy for about 15 years, including time spent as the chief trial judge of the Navy-Marine Corps Trial Judiciary, as well as on the NavyMarine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals, where she was chief appellate judge.

With the appointments of Begovich and Glaser-Allen, there will now be seven judges at the detention center. There are now 520 immigration judges nationwide, the agency said.

“To provide for timely, efficient, and lawful resolution of immigration cases, the Department of Justice has prioritized the growth of EOIR’s corps of immigration judges and expansion of courtroom capacity for these officials to hear cases,” said Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen. “These have been longstanding challenges for the immigration system.”

It was not immediately clear from the biographies of the two judges written by the Executive Office for Immigration Review whether either has prior experience with immigration law. Though most immigration judges previously worked as attorneys for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, many immigration judges come to the profession without having practiced immigration law specifically.

It is not uncommon for the attorney general to select immigration judges from among people who have worked as prosecutors at all levels of government or from people who have worked in military courts.