More on the soaring immigration court backlog

From the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse ( TRAC ) at Syracuse University, which closely monitors immigration and border flows, immigration court activity, and other aspects of immigration. The following comes from a study of immigration courts along the Mexican border.

At the start of the Bush administration the backlog stood at just 149,338. The backlog had continued to grow under President Obama. And it only accelerated under President Trump. But in late 2021, the backlog about 1.6 million, having grown in every year.



In 2009, asylum cases took 15 months to be heard. Today, it takes 58 months,

Although the recent surge in the Immigration Court backlog is alarming, it is not as if Congress or the federal government has been in kept in the dark about this problem. Since at least 2008, TRAC has published regular reports and alerts about the growing backlog.

In May 2009 a TRAC study reported on how judges were poorly resourced (for instance, in clerks). Three presidential administrations has failed to correct the situation.

I posted on this problem in December.

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