News from TRAC

Nearly 4,000 MPP Cases Transferred Out of MPP Courts Under Biden, But Most Cases Still Remain In Mexico

(21 Apr 2021) Using the latest case-by-case records from the Immigration Court, TRAC found that cases for 3,911 people out of a total of 26,432 MPP cases pending at the end of January 2021 have been transferred into the interior of the U.S. so far during the Biden administration. These individuals joined 2,987 people with pending cases originally assigned to MPP who, due to special circumstances, were allowed to enter the country during the Trump administration to await their court hearings.

Case transfers to inside the country varied by MPP court. Transfer rates ranged from a high of 28 percent of pending cases at the MPP court in Brownsville, Texas, to a low of just three percent of cases assigned to the MPP court in Laredo, Texas. Even though nearly 4,000 cases had been transferred away from the border during February and March, records indicate more than 85 percent—or 22,521—of the 26,432 pending MPP cases at the end of January still remain assigned to an MPP court at the end of March.

Cubans represented the largest group of MPP cases still at the border in January with nearly 7,600 cases or 29 percent of the total pending cases. By the end of March, 1,218 cases involving Cubans—16 percent of all Cuban cases—had been transferred to a non-MPP court. Salvadorians, with just under 2,000 cases had the highest transfer rate, with more than one in four cases (or 26 percent) transferred. A principal reason for this higher rate was their concentration at the Brownsville port of entry where processing had proceeded faster.

Updated data through the end of March 2021 shows that the likelihood of asylum seekers being represented by an attorney increases after the person is paroled into the United States, and increases the longer the person is in the United States. Of the nearly 3,000 individuals with cases in MPP who were paroled into the country on or before January 31, 43 percent of them showed a record of an attorney on file. For cases paroled during February and March, this number was lower at 21 percent, but still higher than the less than 10 percent of those still in Mexico who had an attorney.

A total of 63 different hearing locations across the country received MPP transferred cases. Florida proved to be the most popular location that the 3,911 MPP entrants transferred their cases to. Leading the list was Miami, Florida with 651, followed by Orlando, Florida with 321. The hearing location in Dallas, Texas received the third most transferred cases (201), following by Houston, Texas (S. Gessner) with 144. Arlington, Virginia was very close receiving 143 transfers and was in fifth place.

To read the full report, go to:

https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/643/

To examine a variety of Immigration Court data, including asylum data, the backlog, MPP, and more now updated through March 2021, use TRAC's Immigration Court tools here:

https://trac.syr.edu/imm/tools/

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