Biden's fast-track asylum plan juices immigration courts
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Migrants come and go from a shelter in Queens, N.Y., on Dec. 25. Immigrants and their supporters worry the shelter will be targeted under President-elect Trump's plan to round up and deport undocumented immigrants. Photo: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images
U.S. immigration courts are on pace to decide record numbers of deportation cases — and order the most removals in five years — under President Biden's push to fast-track asylum decisions.
Why it matters: The increases in the first two months of fiscal 2025, if they continue, will help reduce a backlog of 3.7 million immigration cases that could take four years to resolve.
- But Biden's fast-track system — in which immigration judges are hearing and ruling on asylum requests in a matter of minutes — stands to be overrun by President-elect Trump's plan for mass deportations.
- Without significant increases in immigration court personnel and other resources for asylum claims, Trump's plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants could create decades-long backlogs in immigration courts.
By the numbers: Immigration courts are on pace to rule on 852,000 deportation cases from Oct. 1, 2024, to Sept. 30, 2025, according to an analysis of case data by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.
- That analysis reviewed the pace of court rulings in October and November, the first two months of the government's fiscal 2025.
- If that pace continues, immigration judges will rule on more deportation cases in 2025 than in any previous year.
Zoom in: So far in fiscal 2025, immigration judges have ordered removals or voluntary departures in 45% of the cases that came before them — up from 39% in 2024 and the highest rate since 2020.
- That means immigration courts are on pace to issue 383,400 orders for removals or voluntary departures in FY 2025.
- According to court records, only 0.7% of the most recent cases sought deportation orders based on any alleged crimes by an immigrant, apart from allegedly entering the U.S. illegally.
At the end of November, about 1.7 million out of the 3.7 million cases in the immigration courts' backlog were for asylum applicants awaiting hearings or decisions.
Zoom out: Immigration courts ruled in nearly 850,000 deportation cases in fiscal 2024, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).
- In those cases, 331,500 people were ordered to be deported or leave the U.S. voluntarily.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported more than 271,000 people last fiscal year — the most in nearly a decade, according to an annual report released this month.
- The report marked a 90% increase in deportations from 2023, even as Republicans assailed Biden as weak on the border during the presidential campaign.
Between the lines: The Biden administration launched a series of initiatives to speed up the pace of immigration court rulings.
- The administration in May unveiled its fast-tracked asylum system for people who recently had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and were headed to any one of five major cities in the U.S.
- The plan allowed judges to more quickly reject some asylum candidates who were considered a threat to public safety or national security.
- The administration also adopted visa restrictions for Colombians and Nicaraguans in an attempt to target those who profit from migrant smuggling.
Illegal border crossings declined steadily in 2024 after a sharp drop at the start of the year, according to Department of Homeland Security data obtained by USA Today and CBS News.
What we're watching: Most of the nation's 734 immigration judges are seeking to reinstate their union ahead of the expected boom in cases once Trump launches his plan for mass deportations.
- The Trump-controlled Federal Labor Relations Authority stripped away the judges' union in 2020. The two sides could be headed for another legal showdown in the coming months.
- A federal appeals court said immigration judges were entitled to union representation.
