Some 1.4 million asylum cases are pending in US immigration courts, according to recent data released by the Department of Justice. This delay represents a record number of unresolved applications and, according to experts, a sign of the current “saturation” of the US immigration system.
“It is clear that the immigration system in the United States needs fundamental reform from the beginning to all components,” he told the Voice of America Ariel Ruiz Soto, analyst at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington.
Ruiz Soto estimates that “in order to expedite the deportation process of a person, it is necessary not only to detain them, but also to put them through the process of an immigration court. And at this moment there are not enough judges to be able to process them quickly, nor are there enough people who can support this type of process.”
The total number of general cases pending in immigration courts is 3,558,995. In the last year alone, more than 1.7 million of them were received, and only 701,749 were completed.
“This type of wait for these cases is for people who come from different countries where it is more difficult to deport them. Even a person who requests asylum and is not granted it, that person still has a right to appeal their case and be able to see if they can be deported to a country that is in danger,” the expert added.
Fiscal year 2024 also saw a record number of people applying defensive asylum. This is the one that is seen most often and consists of a person who attempts to cross into the country illegally is detained by Border Patrol agents and during deportation processing claims that they are afraid of returning to their country. In total, 850,720 cases were presented as defensive.
Affirmative asylum cases filed this year reached 11,918. Affirmative asylum involves people who have arrived in the country with a visa or have not been detected by immigration, and appear before USCIS to request asylum.
Among the asylum cases pending adjudication, according to data from the Department of Justice, there are some 624,000 people who do not have legal representation.
“Legal representation for migrants and people from any type of migration situation is extremely important whether it is a formative or defensive process… We know that the majority of migrants do not have access or do not know how to access legal representation, which “It makes them victims in certain cases of the system that is usually implemented to work and process people quickly,” the analyst added.
Among the asylum cases that were decided during the last year, more than 32 thousand were approved and more than 38 thousand were denied.
New administration seeks to declare national emergency
The incoming Donald Trump administration will face the challenge of delays in processing cases in immigration courts. The president-elect, according to experts, will have challenges in his objective of undertaking mass and accelerated deportations due to the lack of people available to do so.
Trump confirmed on Monday that he has a plan to declare a national emergency and use military resources for mass deportations.
The Republican described as “true” a publication on the Truth Social network by Tom Fitton, president of the conservative group Judicial Watch, in which he referred to “good news” about the incoming administration, which would be “prepared to declare a national emergency.” , and will use military resources to reverse the invasion [de inmigrantes] under Biden, through a massive deportation program.”
“This does not mean that these military agencies, nor the National Guard, are going to be the ones making arrests or detaining people, but rather they are going to support the logistics process of aircraft, processing personnel, computers and build different types of detention centers,” explained Ruiz Soto.
During his first term, Trump invoked a national emergency order to allocate Pentagon funds to border wall construction. However, President Joe Biden’s administration ended that order when he took office in 2021.
For experts, these types of emergency declarations “do not give unlimited power to the president. In reality what they do is that they grant some specific authorities at a certain time, which can be counteracted by Congress.”
However, because the Senate and House of Representatives will be under Republican control when Trump takes office, “it is highly unlikely” that he will attempt to limit the authorities of a national emergency imposed by Trump.
Trump won the presidential election with his proposal for mass deportations at the center of his campaign. “On day one I will launch the largest deportation program in the history of the United States to remove criminals,” he said during a campaign event at New York’s Madison Square Garden in the final days of the election race.
Ruiz Soto, however, explained that doing so “on the first day” of his mandate “would be very difficult.”
“What can be expected rather is that perhaps it will begin with a review of the records of people who already have deportation orders who have not complied with them, or other people who have a criminal record… to which a penalty can be applied. type of expedited deportation,” he noted.
Currently, some 11.4 million people are undocumented in the United States, according to Census data.
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