Asylum case backlog soars amid immigration surge, pandemic setbacks

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX) — Federal immigration court judges are overwhelmed by the number of cases coming to their courtrooms.

KFOX spoke with Alexis Lucero, an immigration defense attorney, who said the pandemic, the change in administration and the constant influx of migrants seeking asylum has caused this overflow.

"The immigration court system during the pandemic and during the Title 42 era was largely paralyzed," Lucero said. "A lot of the cases that they had already processed, that they had already been scheduled for were completely canceled for almost a period of two years."

As immigration surges so does the backlog of asylum hearings.

It rose from 2 million to 3 million over the last year, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

In the state of Texas, there is a current backlog of 426,901 cases and in El Paso, there are 19,134 cases, according to TRAC.

"A lot of the cases that were already in process before were frozen and at the same time new ones entered the system," Lucero said.

Lucero said the change in administration played a factor as well, saying that under the Trump administration, things were tougher.

"We saw a lot of efforts by the Department of Homeland Security to focus more on exclusionary efforts. For example, the expedited removal process so that those people would avoid the immigration court system," he said.

Compared to how the Biden administration is handling it, Lucero said it's different.

"[The Biden administration] which had what many could consider a softer tone. More of a compassionate consideration to at least hear the cases that were being processed, especially for those that claim fear," Lucero said.

Texas Congressman Tony Gonzales wants to have immigration judges sent to the border and provided the following statement:

"The vast majority of those who come to our border do not qualify for asylum. Yet, they're released into our communities with a court date that is years into the future—only to fail in the long run and be deemed deportable. This system is broken and it is encouraging record levels of illegal immigration. To fix it, we need to surge more immigration judges to reduce the massive court backlog, but we also need to raise the weak asylum standard that millions have used as a loophole to gain illegal entry into the U.S."

"The reality is it's a drop in the bucket. So it may have a short-term effect but overall it will not affect the numbers that we have seen coming into the United States," Lucero said.

El Paso Congresswoman Veronica Escobar agreed with the need for more judges but also said Congress needed to get serious about immigration reform.

"For decades Congress has only wanted to focus on the border–they haven't wanted to address the overall immigration system. Congress has looked for quick and easy fixes," Escobar said.

Lucero said it's those quick and easy fixes that continue to hold back any meaningful progress.

"Funding has been something that's been requested year in, year out, administration after administration. At some point, money can help but those are funds that are really being used for law enforcement purposes, not to address the overall concerns," Lucero said.