During April, a total of 4,476 MPP cases had been processed and assigned to regular Immigration Courts within the U.S. This fell to just 1,988 during the month of May. The Department of Homeland Security claims that there has been no change in policy and that the pace of transfers is determined by “our capacity to safely process” MPP cases through ports of entry. However, this does not explain or address why either the “capacity” or actual recorded transfers have been suddenly reduced by more than half.

In fact, just under 40 percent of possible MPP cases have been transferred out of MPP courts according to court data.

These findings come from analyses conducted by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University. Results are based on comparing MPP court records at the end of January 2021 matched with those from the end of May 2021. TRAC analyzed this matched MPP case cohort to track the Biden administration's phased process of allowing individuals entry into the U.S.

Half of MPP cases assigned to the Brownsville, Texas hearing location have been allowed to enter the United States. This is in sharp contrast to the Calexico MPP court where less than a quarter of its pending caseload has been transferred. The percent of MPP cases paroled into the country also varies significantly by nationality, reflecting worrisome inequities in the pace and number of transfers by nationality.

Seven out of every ten individuals from Venezuela (71%) and nearly six out of every Cuban (58%) with pending MPP cases had been paroled into the U.S. by the end of May to await their Immigration Court hearings. In contrast, much lower percentages of people from Guatemala (21%), Peru (21%), Brazil (16%) and Ecuador (5%) with pending MPP cases had made their way into the U.S. by the same time.

More than 80 different hearing locations across the country received MPP transferred cases between February and May 2021. Florida proved to be the most popular location that MPP entrants transferred their cases to, followed by Texas.

To read the full report, including full details by MPP court, nationality, and where in the U.S. individuals transferred their cases to, go to:

https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/650/

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

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

If you want to be sure to receive a notification whenever updated data become available, sign up at:

https://tracfed.syr.edu/cgi-bin/tracuser.pl?pub=1

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TRAC is self-supporting and depends on foundation grants, individual contributions and subscription fees for the funding needed to obtain, analyze and publish the data we collect on the activities of the US Federal government. To help support TRAC's ongoing efforts, go to:

https://trac.syr.edu/cgi-bin/sponsor/sponsor.pl