A total of 272,022 cases await resolution by immigration judges in the United States, as per the most recent report concluded on the month of March. The number was confirmed by a top Justice Department official during a Senate Committee hearing.
U.S. immigration courts “received more cases over the past couple of years than any time in its history,” Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) Director Juan Osuna, said Wednesday.
Osuna also told the Senate panel that a large number of cases “are related to aliens who are detained while they are awaiting their hearings... These detained cases continue to be priority for EIOR, in large part because they involve individuals who have criminal convictions that may make them deportable from the U.S.”
The EIOR director stated in his written testimony that at the end of fiscal year 2010; 262,622 proceedings were pending in the immigration courts, marking an increase of more than 40,000 proceedings pending over the end of FY 2009.
“In the first half of FY 2011 [October 2010 through March 2011], that pending case load grew by an additional 9,400” he said, reaching 272,022 at the end of March.
The caseload increase was in part attributed to an increase of cases filed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS.) It was also revealed that the average time taken to dispose of an immigration case is currently 467 days, although Osuna affirmed (in his written remarks) there is no indication that the immigration backlog would decrease.
“EOIR projects that the case receipts for this fiscal year (2011) will top 400,000,” he added.
Osuna told the committee that he may need a minimum of 50 additional judges to cope with the increase of cases expected in the next two years. Hundreds of judges serve in 59 immigration courts across the country, in a system that includes an appeal body, and the Board of Immigration Appeals.
During the hearing was emphasized that only a minimum number of cases with removal orders are executed.
“I think that removal orders, once the process has been completed, should be enforced promptly,” responded Osuna. “I think that goes with the integrity of the process.”
Also present at the Senate hearing, Julie Wood a former assistant secretary for ICE, testified that 84 percent of detained immigrants do not have access to legal advice.
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