U.S. Immigration Courts Face an Unprecedented Backlog of 1.5 Million Cases

U.S. immigration courts have reached an unprecedented backlog of more than 1.5 million cases, the largest ever in the court’s four-decade history. The state of Texas has the largest backlog of more than 250,000 cases. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has the sixth highest backlog with more than 80,000 pending cases. Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated in September 2021 that DHS would be adopting new guidelines to better focus the Department’s resources on the apprehension and removal of noncitizens who are a threat to our national security, public safety, and border security. However, fewer than 1% of new cases brought by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) beginning in October 2021 involved alleged criminal activity. The COVID-19 pandemic is also a factor in the ever-growing case list, in addition to a 2,000% increase in asylum applications and a shortage of immigration judges. In 2019, the median caseload for an immigration judge was 3,000 cases.