Biden's fast-track asylum plan juices immigration courts
www.axios.com

... U.S. immigration courts are on pace to decide record numbers of deportation cases " and order the most removals in five years -- under President Biden's push to fast-track asylum decisions.

Why it matters: The increases in the first two months of fiscal 2025, if they continue, will help reduce a backlog of 3.7 million immigration cases that could take four years to resolve.

- - - But Biden's fast-track system -- in which immigration judges are hearing and ruling on asylum requests in a matter of minutes -- stands to be overrun by President-elect Trump's plan for mass deportations.

- - - Without significant increases in immigration court personnel and other resources for asylum claims, Trump's plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants could create decades-long backlogs in immigration courts.

By the numbers: Immigration courts are on pace to rule on 852,000 deportation cases from Oct. 1, 2024, to Sept. 30, 2025, according to an analysis of case data by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.

- - - That analysis reviewed the pace of court rulings in October and November, the first two months of the government's fiscal 2025.

- - - If that pace continues, immigration judges will rule on more deportation cases in 2025 than in any previous year.

Zoom in: So far in fiscal 2025, immigration judges have ordered removals or voluntary departures in 45% of the cases that came before them " up from 39% in 2024 and the highest rate since 2020. ...