TRAC's New Web Tool Maps Cases Pending in Immigration Court

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University has just released a brand new web mapping application that allows the public to examine for the very first time the number of individuals residing in each state, county, and local community within a county, who have pending cases before the Immigration Court.

Using this new interactive web tool, the location of individuals involved in Immigration Court cases can be displayed based upon each individual's recorded home address. Where the individual is detained, the address shown may be that of the detention facility where the individual is being held.

While TRAC's original backlog tool tabulated cases for each Immigration Court and hearing location, each court covers a wide geographic area - sometimes encompassing several states. Thus, only a very gross picture of the location where cases were situated was possible.

TRAC's new mapping tool, in contrast, uses the individualized location where each person appearing before the court currently resides. Users can therefore pinpoint with great precision just where cases are located throughout the country.


Figure 1: California County Subdivisions

Figure 2: Texas County Subdivisions

 

Figures 1 and 2 above illustrate the level of detail now available. Shown are California and Texas - two of the country's fifty states that are encompassed in TRAC's new app.

Table 1. Communities With Pending Immigration Court Cases by Residence of Individual*
States with: Number
1 or more residents 50
10 or more residents 50
100 or more residents 47
1,000 or more residents 39
Counties with:  
1 or more residents 2,507
10 or more residents 1,372
100 or more residents 470
1,000 or more residents 111
Census County Subdivisions with:  
1 or more residents 11,894
10 or more residents 3,158
100 or more residents 766
1,000 or more residents 96
* See TRAC's mapping tool for location and U.S. Census boundaries for each of these geographic areas, along with pending case counts by location.

Pinpointing Where Individuals Reside

The level of geographic detail now available reveals some surprising facts. There are a very large number of communities across the country that now have residents with cases before the Immigration Court. As shown in Table 1, currently pending court cases directly involve residents in 11,894 communities across the country. Indeed, a startling 2,507 separate counties in the United States—more than three out of every four counties (78%)—have residents with cases currently pending before the Immigration Court. And a total of 39 out of the 50 states have 1,000 or more residents now before the Immigration Court.

As shown in Table 1, however, most communities have a relatively small number of individuals with pending cases. For example, roughly half of the counties in the United States have no more than 25 residents with currently pending matters. Ten percent have 200 or more residents with pending cases.

Table 2 lists the 100 local communities - what the U.S. Census Bureau refers to as "county subdivisions" - that currently have the largest number of pending Immigration Court cases. Twenty-two states have communities that make this list. A total of 30 out of these top 100 communities are located in California. New York has twelve. Texas and Florida each have ten. Virginia has eight.

Rank State Community (Census County Subdivision)* Pending Cases
1 Texas Houston 33,360
2 New York Queens 25,420
3 New York Brooklyn 14,960
4 California Los Angeles 14,287
5 California San Fernando Valley 9,311
6 Arizona Phoenix 6,575
7 New York Hempstead 6,511
8 New York Bronx 6,444
9 California Anaheim-Santa Ana-Garden Grove 6,185
10 Florida Miami 6,106
11 Illinois Cook County-Chicago 5,573
12 New York Islip 4,975
13 California San Jose 4,697
14 Texas Northeast Dallas 4,367
15 California Oakland 4,096
16 Texas Austin 3,908
17 California San Francisco 3,609
18 New York Manhattan 3,260
19 New Jersey Newark 3,151
20 Texas Northwest Harris 3,107
21 Nevada Las Vegas 3,080
22 Florida Lake Worth 3,040
23 District of Columbia Washington 2,924
24 Maryland Montgomery County-District 13 2,889
25 Texas Southwest Dallas 2,783
26 California South Gate-East Los Angeles 2,738
27 California San Diego 2,723
28 Massachusetts Boston 2,679
29 Maryland District 17, Chillum 2,674
30 Texas San Antonio Central 2,609
31 Pennsylvania Philadelphia 2,536
32 California Sacramento 2,440
33 Virginia Mason 2,320
34 New York Brookhaven 2,231
35 California East San Gabriel Valley 2,225
36 California San Bernardino 2,197
37 California Southwest San Gabriel Valley 2,183
38 California San Mateo 2,180
39 Texas Southeast Montgomery 2,171
40 California West Contra Costa 2,159
41 Nebraska Douglas County-Omaha 2,157
42 Colorado Denver 2,078
43 Maryland Baltimore 1,998
44 New Jersey Elizabeth 1,896
45 Colorado South Aurora 1,873
46 Ohio Franklin County-Columbus 1,865
47 California Hayward 1,857
48 Virginia Alexandria 1,833
49 Washington Seattle 1,783
50 Maryland Montgomery County-District 9 1,748
51 California Inglewood 1,703
52 North Carolina Township 1, Charlotte 1,686
53 New York Ramapo 1,677
54 Rhode Island Providence 1,661
55 California Victorville-Hesperia 1,643
56 Virginia Fairfax County-Lee 1,639
57 Florida Homestead 1,609
58 New York Babylon 1,599
59 Massachusetts Lynn 1,590
60 Florida Orlando 1,580
61 Virginia Dranesville 1,553
62 New Jersey Plainfield 1,490
63 Virginia Arlington 1,469
64 California Fresno 1,463
65 New York North Hempstead 1,437
66 Virginia Richmond 1,417
67 New York Huntington 1,389
68 Florida West Palm Beach 1,380
69 Florida Boynton Beach-Delray Beach 1,379
70 California Riverside 1,347
71 Georgia Lilburn 1,340
72 Massachusetts Chelsea 1,339
73 California Oceanside-Escondido 1,337
74 California Compton 1,316
75 Washington Tacoma 1,306
76 California South San Francisco 1,303
77 Florida Fort Lauderdale 1,293
78 California Long Beach-Lakewood 1,292
79 California Bakersfield 1,280
80 Virginia Woodbridge 1,274
81 California Ontario 1,270
82 New York Staten Island 1,260
83 Texas El Paso 1,236
84 Virginia Gainesville 1,138
85 Arizona Eloy 1,137
86 California San Rafael 1,132
87 New Jersey Trenton 1,130
88 Texas Pasadena 1,072
89 Indiana Marion County-Wayne 1,071
90 California Stockton 1,062
91 Florida Naples 1,061
92 California Modesto 1,058
93 Texas Pearsall 1,041
94 California Upper San Gabriel Valley 1,031
95 Florida Tampa 1,021
96 Colorado West Adams 1,007
97 Florida Coral Springs-Margate 995
98 Utah Salt Lake City 984
99 California Fremont 972
100 Georgia Chamblee-Doraville 971
* See TRAC's mapping tool for location and U.S. Census boundaries for each of these communities. Similar information is found there for every community throughout the United States.

Leading the list is Houston, Texas with a total of 33,360 pending cases, following by Queens and Brooklyn New York with 25,420 and 14,960 cases respectively. Los Angeles, California with 14,287 pending cases and San Fernando Valley, California with 9,311 pending cases were in fourth and fifth place.

To view the number of pending court cases in each of 50 states, 2,507 counties, and 11,894 communities within these counties, go to TRAC's mapping tool.

TRAC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit data research center affiliated with the Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Whitman School of Management, both at Syracuse University. For more information, to subscribe, or to donate, contact trac@syr.edu or call 315-443-3563.