Migrant Crisis Straining Border Officials and Immigration Courts

The migrant crisis at the southern border of the United States is causing significant strain on both border officials and immigration courts. In November 2023, there were over 242,000 migrant encounters, which is the highest number for the month of November on record and the third-highest month of the crisis so far. This surge in migrants has led to a serious challenge for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and federal partners, who are requesting more resources from Congress to address the issue.

The Border Patrol union has been more critical of the situation, stating that agents will be processing the illegal border crossers for release into the U.S. while large parts of the border remain open to exploitation by organized crime. Meanwhile, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University has published data showing that the number of cases before immigration courts has now exceeded three million cases. This number has spiked from around 530,000 in December 2016 at the end of the Obama administration to 1.6 million by the end of 2021.

As of November 2023, the backlog of cases before immigration courts stands at 3.075 million. Immigration judges have been working tirelessly to address this issue, with 682 judges now working and closing an average of 975 cases each during the latest fiscal year. However, this has not been enough to keep up with the wave of migrants coming in.

In response to this crisis, the Biden administration has requested $1.4 billion for additional immigration judges. The administration has also implemented a rule to expedite asylum claims using U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers rather than immigration judges. However, it remains unclear whether this will be enough to address the issue, as Republicans have criticized the administration for releasing migrants into the interior and have called for greater restrictions on asylum and the use of humanitarian parole by the administration.

The situation at the southern border is causing significant strain on both border officials and immigration courts, with the number of migrant encounters reaching unprecedented levels. The Biden administration has requested additional resources to address this issue, but it remains to be seen whether this will be enough to alleviate the strain on these systems.