The backlog in U.S. immigration court cases has exceeded 1 million, according to the latest data from Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a research organization at Syracuse University.
Last year, there were 768,257 cases in total; in 2017, it was 629,051.
Court records also reveal that during the first 11 months of fiscal year 2019, a total of 384,977 new cases reached the court. If it continues at that rate through the final month of this fiscal year, 2019 will also mark a new record, TRAC said.
In response to the data, a Justice Department spokesperson told The Epoch Times that while they do not “certify data from third parties,” the TRAC report and the department’s own data “further confirms there is a crisis at the border.”
“This Administration is taking aggressive steps to increase productivity, close loopholes, and hire a record number of judges to address the backlog with our existing authorities,” the spokesperson said via email on Sept. 19.
“This is only part of the solution, unfortunately, as Congress needs to act as well to address the border crisis.”
New cases under the “Remain in Mexico” policy made up only just under 10 percent of the new filings, the data showed. A total of 38,291 MPP cases as of the end of August reached the court, with 33,564 of them still pending.
“These MPP cases comprise an even smaller share—only 3.3 percent—of the court’s active backlog,” TRAC said.