It’s no secret that the pandemic has disrupted regular operations as we had known them. It’s also no secret that immigration court cases are notorious for backlogging the U.S. judicial system. A combination of the two has meant historically concentrated backlogs in immigration court cases in the past couple of years, which, according to a new report, continue to worsen. A report from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) finds that growth in the number of pending Immigration Court cases has increased significantly since President Joe Biden took office in January. According to the report, records of court case backlogs under the Biden administration are greater than the peaks faced by the Trump administration. “Quarterly growth in the number of pending Immigration Court cases between October and December 2021 is the largest on record. In just this short period, the backlog increased by almost 140,000 cases. Even during the most dramatic growth in pending cases during the Trump administration, the largest 3-month increase in the backlog only once approached 100,000 in the June-August 2019 period.” -TRAC A partial court shutdown implemented in response to the pandemic in its early stages did contribute to the unusual backlog; previous TRAC reports show that monthly case completions had dropped from an average of 40,000 to 6,000 during that period. But even with court closures throughout the duration of the pandemic, “case completions have been growing and averaged 22,000 per month during the first quarter of FY2022,” according to the report.
How Can We Help?
Our Services
More Immigration Blogs
Hear From Our
Clients