Immigration Court Backlog Reaches All-Time High Due to Influx of Juvenile Immigrants

According to data obtained by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, as of the end of June 2014, the number of cases awaiting resolution before the Immigration Courts has reached 375,503 – an all-time high and an increase of more than 50,000 since the start of fiscal year 2013.

The average time a pending case has been waiting in the Immigration Courts of the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) has also increased. That average is now up to 587 days. Each case can take many more days depending on individual circumstances and availability of potential relief from removal.

Preliminary TRAC figures indicate that the number of cases involving juveniles has climbed to 41,640, with more arriving daily. As of the end of June 2014, the court backlog for juveniles from Guatemala is the largest with 12,841 cases, closely followed by Honduras (12,696) and El Salvador (12,162).

TRAC will soon release a new tool for tracking the progress of cases involving juveniles through the Immigration Courts.