News from TRAC

50 Percent Jump in Immigration Court Case Completions

(19 Jan 2024) Immigration judges completed almost 200,000 cases during the first quarter of FY 2024 (October-December 2023). This is a 50 percent jump as compared with the same period a year ago when judges had completed 132,000 cases. So far in FY 2024, judges issued around 64,000 deportation orders.

Harris County, Texas, where Houston is located led the nation in residents with the largest number of completed cases this fiscal year. A total of 11,503 residents there had their cases completed. However, Immigrant Court cases for an additional 87,262 residents were still pending.

Noncitizens in Los Angeles County, California, were not far behind. They saw the second largest number of completed cases – just over 10,000. Residents in Miami-Dade County, Florida, with the third highest number of completed Immigration Court cases was far below Harris County and Los Angeles County with just under 5,500 case completions.

These findings are based upon the latest case-by-case Immigration Court records obtained and analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).

Other highlights from data updated in TRAC’s Immigration Court Quick Facts tool show that:

Immigration Courts recorded receiving 686,298 new cases so far in FY 2024 as of December 2023.
According to court records, only 0.25% of FY 2024 new cases sought deportation orders based on any alleged criminal activity of the immigrant, apart from possible illegal entry.
Immigration Court recorded closing 198,569 cases so far in FY 2024 as of December 2023.
At the end of December 2023, 3,287,058 active cases were pending before the Immigration Court.
Miami-Dade County, FL, has the most residents with pending Immigration Court deportation cases (as of the end of December 2023).
So far this fiscal year (through December 2023), immigration judges have issued removal and voluntary departure orders in 35.1% of completed cases, totaling 63,953 deportation orders.
Among Immigration Court cases completed in December 2023, immigrants in Foreign Address had the highest proportion ordered removed. Rhode Island residents had the lowest proportion ordered removed.
So far in FY 2024 (through December 2023), immigrants from Honduras top list of nationalities with largest number ordered deported.
Only 15.9% of immigrants, including unaccompanied children, had an attorney to assist them in Immigration Court cases when a removal order was issued in December 2023 .
Immigration judges have held 6,798 bond hearings so far in FY 2024 (through December 2023). Of these 1,856 were granted bond.

For more information, see TRAC's Quick Facts tools or click here to learn more about TRAC's entire suite of immigration tools.