On the recordFebruary 9, 2012
I rise to speak on behalf of the nomination of magistrate judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo to the position of district judge for the Southern District of California. Judge Bencivengo will fill a judicial emergency vacancy in a judicial district along the southwest border that has one of the highest and most rapidly increasing criminal caseloads in the country. The Southern District of California includes San Diego and Imperial Counties. It borders Mexico, and it consequently has a large immigration caseload. It ranks fourth in the country in terms of criminal case filings per authorized judgeship. The district's former chief judge, Irma Gonzalez, wrote me a letter urging Judge Bencivengo's confirmation and highlighting the felony caseload crisis in the district. As Chief Judge Gonzalez explained, since 2008 criminal case filings in the district have increased by 42 percent and civil case filings by 25 percent. In the past fiscal year alone, criminal cases had risen 17 percent up to the time of her letter. It is, in fact, a judicial emergency. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator is advised the previous allotted time has expired.
