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By Billal Rahman and Dan Gooding
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As the Trump administration removes immigration judges, U.S. immigration courts are facing historic backlogs, leaving millions of immigrants and asylum seekers waiting years for case resolutions.
Data published by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse shows there are approximately 3,687,750 active cases awaiting resolution in immigration courts nationwide, including nearly 1,961,655 formal asylum applications. The average wait time for a case has risen, with the typical pending case awaiting resolution for about 636 days, up 5.5 percent compared with December 2024.
Why It Matters
Immigration courts are overwhelmed, with a backlog just under 3.7 million cases, according to Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. Asylum-seekers often wait years for decisions on their cases.
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is facing a record 11.3 million pending applications, the highest ever recorded. Between January and March, processing delays worsened in several immigration categories, leaving applicants waiting months or even years longer than expected.
What To Know
The Trump administration fired eight immigration judges based in New York City on Monday, CBS News reported. All eight judges worked out of immigration court offices at 26 Federal Plaza in New York City, which is also the headquarters of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the city. At the beginning of the year, there were about 700 immigration judges in the country, but the number has now fallen below 600, according to the National Association of Immigration Judges.
TRAC’s state-level breakdown reveals that certain states are carrying the bulk of the immigration court backlog. Florida leads the list with 523,295 pending cases, followed by Texas with 410,944, California with 373,548, New York with 338,388, New Jersey with 223,871, and Illinois with 222,616. These six states alone account for a substantial share of unresolved cases nationwide.
Within states, certain courts carry particularly heavy caseloads—for example, the court in Miami has a backlog of 311,291 cases.
"The backlog has decreased since the start of 2025 by close to half a million cases," Amelia Wilson, an assistant professor of Law and director of the Immigration Justice Clinic, told Newsweek.
"Regionally, we have seen many experienced immigration judges abruptly fired. Some of these judges had decades of experience, and all had many years of practice experience prior to joining the bench," she said.
"The Department of Justice has made no moves to replace them, except by recruiting military attorneys with no prior training or immigration experience. This will undoubtedly create serious delays in adjudication."
The backlog and long average wait times mean many immigrants and asylum seekers remain in legal limbo for years before their cases are adjudicated. For asylum applicants in particular, the average wait of 636 days could translate into prolonged uncertainty about their legal status, life plans, and family reunification.
Courts handling larger caseloads could experience delays or reduced capacity to evaluate individual cases thoroughly.
USCIS is funded entirely through the fees it collects from immigrants applying for benefits, including green cards, work authorization, and replacement visa documents.
Democrats in Washington are pushing to limit who the Trump administration can appoint as temporary immigration judges after the White House removed several tenured judges. A new bill from Senator Adam Schiff and Representative Juan Vargas would require temporary judges to have appellate experience, hold administrative judge positions, or have a significant background in immigration law. The administration has recently added new judges, including temporary ones, and has launched a campaign to hire more “deportation” judges.
The Trump administration marshalled agencies like ICE and CBP to move through immigration court buildings, stalking the halls of the courts as they waited to detain migrants without legal status after their cases were dismissed in a bid to increase arrests and removals.
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What People Are Saying
Amelia Wilson, assistant professor of Law and director of the Immigration Justice Clinic, told Newsweek: "The backlog has decreased for all the wrong reasons. The current administration has reinterpreted who it considers eligible for a full hearing in the first place, meaning fewer people are allowed to have their cases heard at all. And, between shutting down the border to new asylum seekers, arresting asylum seekers and entire families at their court appearances, and fast-tracking detention and deportation, the obvious consequence is that the backlog will decrease. But, at great expense to due process."
The Department of Homeland Security wrote in a post on X: "If you're a legal professional, join the Department of Justice as a Deportation Judge to preside over cases and determine whether an alien must stay or leave our nation."
What Happens Next
Given the scale of the backlog and its concentration in select states and courts, clearing the caseload remains a major challenge. Observers argue that reducing the backlog will likely require a mix of reforms: allocating more judges and resources to overburdened courts, redistributing caseloads more evenly across jurisdictions, streamlining asylum procedures, and ensuring timely legal representation for those awaiting hearings.
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