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Center on Media Crime and Justice at John Jay College
November 25, 2020

Biden’s Homeland Pick Pledges ‘Country of Welcome’ in Shadow of Immigration Backlog
By TCR Staff


The incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden faces the largest backlog of unresolved immigration cases on record. More than 1.2 million cases were pending in immigration courts in October, the last month for which figures are available, reports the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. About four out of every ten cases involved nationals from the Central American nations of Guatemala and Honduras. In a reversal of earlier trends, individuals from Mexico comprised the third-largest group, and migrants from El Salvador were fourth. Court closures and delays due to the pandemic accounted for a substantial part of the backlog. The number of resolved asylum cases, for example, plummeted from over 7,000 in March to just 1,380 in April.


Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University
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