HERE’S THE LATEST FROM TRAC:
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse
==========================================
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEGreetings. As of July 31, 2018, pending cases in Immigration Court nationwide reached nearly three-quarters of a million (746,049 cases). This is a 38 percent increase compared to the 542,411 cases pending at the end of January 2017 when President Trump took office.
All states are witnessing an increase in Immigration Court backlogs. However, ten states account for the vast majority of the backlog. Four out of five pending cases in the country are before immigration judges in these ten states. The state of Maryland leads the pack with the highest rate of increase in pending cases since the beginning of FY 2017. Pending caseloads in Maryland have increased by 96 percent, roughly double its caseload at the beginning of FY 2017. Of the top ten states, courts based in Texas experienced the least amount of growth at 20 percent. See Figure 1.
In absolute terms, California has the largest Immigration Court backlog – 140,676 cases waiting decision, a number that has increased by 48 percent from its FY 2017 pending caseload level.
Courts based in three other states experienced even higher growth rates than in California. Massachusetts’ court backlog grew by 76 percent. The backlog in Georgia grew by 67 percent, while pending cases in Florida grew by 57 percent.
To view further details on each of the top ten states go to:
http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/526/
In addition, many of TRAC’s free query tools – which track the court’s overall backlog, new DHS filings, court dispositions and much more – have now been updated through July 2018. For an index to the full list of TRAC’s immigration tools go to:
http://trac.syr.edu/imm/tools/
If you want to be sure to receive notifications whenever updated data become available, sign up at:
http://tracfed.syr.edu/cgi-bin/tracuser.pl?pub=1&list=imm
or follow us on Twitter @tracreports or like us on Facebook:
http://facebook.com/tracreports
TRAC is self-supporting and depends on foundation grants, individual contributions and subscription fees for the funding needed to obtain, analyze and publish the data we collect on the activities of the U.S. federal government. To help support TRAC’s ongoing efforts, go to:
http://trac.syr.edu/cgi-bin/sponsor/sponsor.pl
David Burnham and Susan B. Long, co-directors
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse
Syracuse University
Suite 360, Newhouse II
Syracuse, NY 13244-2100
315-443-3563
***************************************
As many of us had predicted, by twisting the law against asylum seekers, rather than letting it develop in a manner that would have correctly resulted in more asylum grants in shorter hearings, Sessions has contributed mightily to the increasing backlog. Also, in his conflicted role as the “de facto head of DHS,” Sessions has all but eliminated prosecutorial discretion (“PD”) at ICE. His actions have also put many properly closed cases that should have remained off docket or with USCIS back on the Immigration Courts’ docket while stripping Immigration Judges of the tools necessary to manage their dockets.
Sessions effectively has taken a sinking ship and punched holes below the waterline to make it sink even faster. And, he has proved that without some type of rational, Due Process reforms leading to an independent Article I Immigration Court, there is no way of getting a handle on the Immigration Courts’ problems while complying with the Constitution.
A system that essentially is being abused and run into the ground by the Government party appearing before it in every single case is doomed to failure. The first step to any successful court system is creating a fair, impartial, and efficient process, including a transparent merit selection system for the judges, that can then be replicated and improved over time under the direction of judges with input from all parties. That first step will never be taken as long as Sessions and the DOJ remain in change.
But, no system will be able to eliminate overnight a backlog resulting from more than a decade of political manipulation and mismanagement by the DOJ under Administrations of both parties. Even though anti-Constitutionalists like Sessions, Trump, and co. want to admit it, the Supreme Court has told us the simple truth that Due Process takes time. There is no “silver bullet” or “one size fits all” formula for achieving it.
PWS
08-30-18