HOW THE BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION USES THE NATION’S IMMIGRATION COURTS TO ADVANCE AN OPEN-BORDERS AGENDA
The New York Analysis Presents the Executive Summary of the Interim Staff Report of the Committee on the Judiciary and Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement
For almost four years, Americans have watched as President Joe Biden and border czar Vice President Kamala Harris have abandoned the southwest border and welcomed nearly 8 million illegal aliens into the United States. The Biden-Harris Administration’s open-borders policies not only have undermined national security and endangered communities across the U.S., but they also have decimated the nation’s immigration courts.
Since President Biden and Vice President Harris took office, the immigration court case backlog has skyrocketed, with more than 3.7 million new cases since the beginning of fiscal year 2021.2 In just the first three quarters of fiscal year 2024, there were more than 1.5 million new cases filed with the nation’s immigration courts. The majority of those cases are based on claims that ultimately will prove unsuccessful. Of the asylum cases that were adjudicated in fiscal year 2023, only 14 percent resulted in an asylum grant, with the remaining cases denied, abandoned, dismissed, terminated, withdrawn, or administratively closed.
The Biden-Harris Administration has used the immigration court backlog as an excuse to allow even more aliens to remain in the country. Instead of actually adjudicating illegal aliens’ cases based on the merits of aliens’ claims for relief—such as whether an alien has a valid and successful asylum claim—immigration judges under the Biden-Harris Administration have been tasked with rubberstamping case dismissals, case closures, and case terminations, all of which allow illegal aliens to remain in the United States without immigration consequences. This sort of quiet amnesty has become a staple of the Biden-Harris Administration’s immigration courts.
Since 2023, the Committee on the Judiciary and its Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement have conducted oversight of the Biden-Harris border crisis, including its effect on the nation’s immigration courts. This oversight has revealed how the
Biden-Harris Administration has used administrative maneuvering in immigration court proceedings to allow nearly 1 million illegal aliens to remain in the U.S. indefinitely.
For example:
• Under the Biden-Harris Administration, more than 700,000 illegal aliens have had their
cases dismissed, terminated, or administratively closed, allowing those aliens to stay in
the country indefinitely without facing immigration consequences.
• For asylum decisions, the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), which
houses the nation’s immigration courts, reported 109,089 cases as “not adjudicated” in
fiscal year 2023, meaning that those cases were deemed “completed” but were largely
terminated or dismissed and not adjudicated on the merits of the underlying claim.
• Through the first nine months of fiscal year 2024, the number of non-adjudicated asylum
cases already eclipsed the 2023 record, with 109,568 asylum cases not adjudicated.
By comparison, only 12,960 total asylum cases were reported as “not adjudicated” from
fiscal year 2017 through fiscal year 2020 combined
• The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) failed to file the necessary documentation
to begin immigration court removal proceedings in roughly 200,000 additional cases,
meaning that the overwhelming majority of those aliens can also remain in the U.S.
indefinitely.
• An immigration court official admitted to the Committee and Subcommittee that
decisions by the Biden-Harris DHS, such as DHS attorneys not appearing at scheduled
hearings and DHS failing to file proper paperwork with the courts, waste the immigration courts’ time and resources and decrease efficiency. … the [Biden-Harris Administration has used the] nation’s immigration courts to advance an open-borders agenda. Through administrative maneuvering at both the Justice Department and DHS, the Biden-Harris Administration has already ensured that nearly 1 million illegal aliens can remain in the United States without the possibility of deportation—and that trend shows no sign of stopping…