According to an analysis of very timely court data by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), pending cases backlogged in the nation’s Immigration Courts reached an all time high of 228,421 matters in the first months of fiscal year (FY) 2010. The case backlog was up 23 percent since the end of FY 2008 and 82 percent from 10 years ago.
TRAC is a data gathering, data research and data distribution organization at Syracuse University. The purpose of TRAC is to provide the American people—and institutions of oversight such as Congress, news organizations, public interest groups, businesses, scholars and lawyers—with comprehensive information about staffing, spending and enforcement activities of the federal government.
TRAC’s analysis of the data also showed that the average time these pending cases have been waiting in the Immigration Courts of the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) inched up to a new high of 439 days. Key to the growing backlogs and wait times is the failure of both the Bush and Obama administrations to fill the judge vacancies on the Immigration Courts, which numbered 48 as of Jan. 12, 2010. The number of vacancies means that one out of six of the judge positions—17 percent of the total—are now unfilled.
TRAC’s full report and tables on the Immigration Courts can be viewed at http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/225/.
Released also with this special report is TRAC’s Immigration Court Caseload Tool that, for the first time, gives anyone a way to obtain case backlogs and waiting times in each state, court and hearing location. California led the nation as the state with the largest number of cases pending before the immigration courts—59,451 of them—or about one quarter (26 percent) of the national total. New York, with 16 percent of all such matters, ranked second.
This information is also available by nationality. For the Immigration Court Caseload Tool, visit http://trac.syr.edu/phptools/immigration/court_backlog/.
We want to know how you experience Syracuse University. Take a photo and share it with us. We select photos from a variety of sources. Submit photos of your University experience using #SyracuseU on social media, fill out a submission…
Nina Kohn, the David M. Levy Professor of Law and Faculty Director of Online Education in the College of Law, was quoted in the Politico story ‘We Don’t Fix This Because We Just Don’t Care About Old People’ Kohn discussed the…
Dimitar Gueorguiev, assistant professor for political science in the Maxwell School, authored an opinion piece for the Washington Post “The U.S. and China agreed to work together on climate action. What would push this cooperation forward?” and was quoted in…
Jennifer Stromer-Galley, professor in the School of Information Studies and Senior Associate Dean for Academic and Faculty Affairs, was quoted in The Guardian story “Astroworld disaster fuels wave of satanic conspiracy theories on TikTok.” Prof. Stromer-Galley was also quoted about…
Aileen Gallagher, associate professor of magazine, news and digital journalism in the Newhouse School, was quoted in the New York Times story “People Magazine Heads to New Ownership. Again.” With People Magazine recently being bought by the company DotDash, many…
If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.
