Border crossers claiming asylum are being given court dates to have their cases heard nearly a decade out. At the same time, the nation’s immigration court backlog has now topped three million under President Joe Biden.
As hundreds of thousands of border crossers and illegal aliens — most with invalid asylum claims — flock to the United States-Mexico border in the hopes of being released into American communities, many are receiving check-in and hearing dates well into the future.
Every day, Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is releasing thousands of border crossers and illegal aliens into the U.S. interior. Those released are given Notices to Appear (NTA) before a federal immigration judge at a later date while others are getting dates for when they must next check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
According to Fox News’s Bill Melugin, a female border crosser who recently arrived in Texas from Colombia was given a date to merely check-in with ICE agents — not a court date. That check-in date in New York City is in 2031.
NEW: A Colombian woman who crossed illegally into El Paso, TX & was released into the U.S. was given an ICE check in date in NYC in 2031. Her immigration attorney, @mkolken, tells me it’s one of the most shocking things he’s seen in his nearly 30 years of immigration law. (1/2). pic.twitter.com/A71el4NFfa
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) December 20, 2023
Meanwhile, Ali Bradley from NewsNation reports that two recently arrived male border crossers were released into the U.S. with NTAs. Their NTAs ask them to appear in court before a judge to have their asylum cases heard.
Their court dates are in Charlotte, North Carolina in September 2027 while the other is set for July 2029 in Dallas, Texas.
NEW: Two migrants who crossed into Eagle Pass, Texas last week didn’t claim fear in their initial screenings and were released with notices to appear— One in September of 2027 in Charlotte, North Carolina and the other is set to see a judge in Dallas, Texas in July of 2029.
The… pic.twitter.com/ZVE1lctFsQ
— Ali Bradley (@AliBradleyTV) December 20, 2023
Last month, Biden broke yet another record when the nation’s immigration court backlog topped three million cases. The backlog suggests the number of border crossers who have been released into the U.S. interior and are now waiting to have their asylum cases heard before a federal judge.
The overwhelming majority of border crossers do not have valid asylum claims.
“The immigration court backlog passed three million pending cases. Just 12 months ago, during November 2022, the backlog was 2 million,” researchers at Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University detail:
That means the case backlog has grown by a million cases in just the past 12 months.
Immigration judges are swamped. Immigration judges now average 4,500 pending cases each. If every person with a pending immigration case were gathered together, it would be larger than the population of Chicago, the third largest city in the United States. Indeed, the number of waiting immigrants in the Court’s backlog is now larger than the population found in many states.
Chart via TRAC at Syracuse University
For perspective, when former President Donald Trump took office in late January 2017, the immigration court backlog stood at fewer than 570,000 cases. When Trump left office in early 2021, the backlog had grown by about 500,000 cases to reach more than a million.
In fewer than three years, Biden has almost tripled the immigration court backlog thanks to his administration’s policy of releasing border crossers and illegal aliens into the U.S. interior and figuring out if their asylum claims are valid at far later dates.
Democrats, in recent weeks, have started to call Biden out for the policy.
This week, Chicago, Illinois, Alderman Raymond Lopez (D) said Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are responsible for waves of illegal aliens arriving in his city under the guise of asylum despite the majority having dubious asylum claims.
“My Mayor is blaming everyone except the person who needs to get the blame, and that is President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who are responsible for protecting and securing our borders and for having a functional immigration system,” Lopez said:
They’re not calling out Secretary Mayorkas for letting undocumented — for letting asylum seekers come to this country under false pretense and then giving them court cases ten years from now.
Similarly, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) said Democrats need to work with Republicans in Congress to raise the asylum standard to prevent Biden from mass releasing illegal aliens into the U.S. interior.
“We need to raise the critical fear standard on the border,” Gonzalez said. “We need to have expedited hearings and expedited removals.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter here.
