President Donald Trump's plan for nationwide raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement will put immense strain on an already backlogged immigration court system, Politico reports.
The large number of migrants seeking asylum in the United States has caused a massive caseload for immigration officials, according to the officials, but analysis from The Marshall Project shows that the backlog of cases in immigration courts has grown at almost three times the rate that migrants have come to the country. Multiple judges, attorneys, and court staff told Politico that the Trump administration's policies, which were intended to speed up the system and remove Obama-era regulations, have slowed the process even more.
"We see the government fighting every case," said Judge Ashley Tabaddor, the president of the National Association of Immigration Judges union. "Instead of being an efficient use of our resources, it's just a lot of chaos and counterproductive measures that undermine the ability of judges to use their expertise to help a case go through the system."
"We've largely solved the problems on our side in terms of processing," James McHenry, director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the courts, said during a congressional hearing in March. "Right now, the challenge is driven primarily by our successes."
"This is largely a problem they created for themselves," said retired immigration judge Robert Vinikoor, who still practices immigration law in Chicago. "They're keeping every case on the docket and the judges' hands are tied. They're getting nothing accomplished."