Ashcroft's goal to clear the immigration appeals board's backlog has resulted in members deciding cases and issuing deportation orders in minutes, a process that is being assailed by critics.

"A Justice Department overhaul of the immigration appeals system, often the last stop for people fighting deportation, has prompted a barrage of unusually fast rulings rendered without explanation -- and an outcry about noncitizens' rights to due process."

The Board of Immigration Appeals hears the cases of foreigners who contend they face torture, death or other "travails" if they are returned to their home country".

The 23 member board reviews the cases of 220 immigration judges around the country. There is a backlog of 56,000 cases, and Ashcroft has decreed it must be current by March 25.

"In turn, immigrants are appealing to the federal court system in unprecedented numbers, creating another backlog, The Times found in a survey of federal appellate courts. "Immigrant advocates say the speedup is the latest in a series of actions compromising the rights of noncitizens in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks."

T. Alexander Aleinikoff, a law professor at Georgetown University and former Immigration and Naturalization Service general counsel said "We are already seeing results: Many, many cases are decided at a speed that makes it impossible to believe they got the scrutiny a person who faces removal from the United States deserves."

"The Justice Department also plans to cut the Board of Immigration Appeals in half -- from 23 members to 11 -- once the backlog is reduced, even though Ashcroft had expanded the board in 2001."

"The pending cutback has focused acute pressure on individual board members to process cases swiftly. Ashcroft has said that productivity -- broadly, the number of rulings each board member makes -- is one of the factors he will consider in determining who stays on the board."