Despite hiring hundreds of new judges, the nation’s immigration court backlog under President Biden has reached record levels, jumping to more than 3 million pending cases in November, according to a new report.
The backlog has increased by about 1 million cases since November 2022, according to data compiled by Syracuse University’s Transaction Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC.
Record levels of migrants crossing the southern US border under Biden, 81, have overwhelmed immigration judges, according to the TRAC report, with each judge now handling an average of 4,500 cases.
“If every person with a pending immigration case were added together, it would be larger than the population of Chicago, the third largest city in the United States,” the report said. “In fact, the number of immigrants waiting in the Court’s backlog is now greater than the population found in many states.”
The data shows that the rate of growth in arrears is only accelerating.
From July to September 2023, the backlog increased by almost 400,000 cases or 130,000 cases per month. And from October to November 2023, the monthly growth in cases increased by an average of 140,000 per month.
Record levels of migrants crossing the US southern border under Biden, 81, have left immigration judges on edge, according to a TRAC report. AP
Under the Trump administration, the backlog peaked at about 1.2 million cases in December 2020 and monthly growth in new cases averaged about 47,000 per month.
The backlog totaled 516,031 cases in the last fiscal year of former President Barack Obama’s second term in office.
Each immigration judge currently handles an average of 4,500 cases. TRAC
The Biden administration has hired 302 new immigration judges to clear the backlog, bringing the total number of immigration judges to 734, according to the Justice Department.
Each judge closed an average of about 975 cases in the most recent fiscal year, according to TRAC, a closing rate “nearly one-third greater than seven years ago during the last year of the Obama administration.”
“Even so, more judges and higher case closures per judge still cannot keep up with the flow of incoming cases,” the report said.
Nearly 2.5 million people were caught illegally crossing the border in fiscal year 2023 – a record-breaking number – and an estimated 670,000 migrants evaded capture.
Authorities found 242,418 illegal immigrants at the US-Mexico border in November alone, CBP announced last week, a new record for the month.
Last Monday, US Customs and Border Protection officials found more than 12,600 illegal immigrants along the US-Mexico border, breaking the single-day record.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
