Immigration Court Completions Remain at Historic Lows Through July 2020

The partial shutdown of the Immigration Court in the wake of COVID-19 has already impacted hundreds of thousands of immigrants awaiting their day in court. For the Court's current active backlog of 1,233,307 immigrants waiting for their cases to be heard, canceled hearings due to COVID-19 are increasing hearing delays for months and often years to come.

Monthly case completions before the March shutdown were running over 40,000. During January 2020, for example, they were 42,045 and in February completions were 41,793. During the period from April to July they fell precipitously to around 6,000. In July 2020, only 5,960 cases were completed. See Figure 1.


Figure 1. Immigration Court Case Completions by Month, January - July 2020
(Click for larger image)

In contrast between April and July 2020 a total of 111,752 new Notices to Appear issued by the Department of Homeland Security were recorded as received by the Immigration Court. A much larger number—some 347,450 immigrants—were still waiting for their initial or "master calendar" hearing.

Where Are Case Completions Taking Place?

During July, 196 hearing locations completed cases. Leading the list with 216 case completions was Miami, Florida[1]. This is not primarily a detained location although it does handle hearings for some detained immigrants (EOIR's website indicates it is currently open only for filings and detained hearings only). Only one other location—Baltimore, Maryland[2]—completed at least 200 cases. While Baltimore is also not primarily a detained location, it is currently fully open.

A dozen hearing sites completed at least 100 cases. Of these only five were detained locations. These detained hearing locations were: Port Isabel Service Processing Center in Texas, the Northwest Detention Center in Washington, the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Texas, the Adelanto Detention Facility West in California, and the Eloy INS Detention Center in Arizona.

Two of the remaining non-detained locations are currently fully open: Chicago, Illinois and Newark, New Jersey. Two others are open only to hear detained cases: New York City and Los Angeles. The remaining site with at least 100 cases during July 2020 was the Port of Entry in Laredo, Texas, which disposed of 147 immigrants who were required to remain in Mexico under Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP).

Table 1 below contains a complete listing of Immigration Court hearing locations which completed cases during July.

Table 1. Immigration Court Case Completions by Hearing Location, July 2020
Hearing Location July Completions
Total* 5,960
Miami, Florida 216
Baltimore, Maryland 200
Chicago, Illinois 191
New York City, New York 189
MPP Laredo,Texas - Port of Entry 147
Los Angeles, California 144
Port Isabel Service Processing Center 126
Northwest Detention Center 117
Bluebonnet Detention Center 113
Adelanto Detention Facility West 104
Newark, New Jersey 103
Eloy INS Detention Center 101
Buffalo, New York 99
Chicago Detained 96
Krome North Service Processing Center 93
Arlington, Virginia 87
San Francisco, California 87
San Antonio, Texas 82
Lasalle Detention Facility 81
Atlanta Immigration Court 78
MPP Brownsville Gateway International Bridge 77
Dallas, Texas 76
Karnes County Correction Center 76
Stewart Detention Center - Lumpkin Georgia - LGD 76
Atlanta, Georgia 75
Prairieland Detention Center 73
Laredo, Texas - Detention Facility 69
Otero County Processing Center 67
Pearsall, Texas - Detention Facility 66
Adams County Correctional Center 63
Cleveland, Ohio 60
Dilley - Stfrc 60
Atlanta Detained Location 59
Farmville Detention Center 59
La Palma Correctional Center 59
Essex County Jail 58
Winn Correctional Facility 57
Aurora Immigration Court 56
Baltimore, Maryland Juvenile 56
Memphis, Tennessee 55
Houston, Texas 54
Jackson Parish Correctional Center 54
Hartford, Connecticut 53
Kansas City Immigration Court - Detained 50
Boston, Massachusetts 48
New York Broadway 48
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 48
La Palma 46
Las Vegas, Nevada 46
New Orleans, Louisiana 46
Winn Correctional Center 46
Immigration Court 44
Joe Corley Detention Facility 39
El Paso Service Processing Center 38
Glades County Prison 38
Imperial Detained 38
Folkston Ipc - Annex 37
Denver, Colorado 36
MPP Court El Paso 36
Omaha, Nebraska 36
Broward Transitional Center 35
Florence, Arizona 33
Henderson Detained 33
Otay Mesa Detention Center 33
Conroe Immigration Court 32
T. Don Hutto Residential 32
New York Service Processing Center (Varick St) 31
York County Prison 31
Detroit, Michigan 30
Omaha Immigration Court - Detained 30
Rio Grande Detention Center 30
South Louisiana Correctional Center 30
Adelanto Detention Facility East 27
Caroline Detention Facility 27
Charlotte 27
Phoenix, Arizona 26
Bloomington 25
DHS-Litigation Unit/Oakdale 24
Pahrump 24
San Diego, California 24
Batavia Service Processing Center 23
Bloomington Detained 23
Boston Detained 22
Houston - S. Gessner 22
Butler County Sheriff's Office 21
Mesa Verde Detained 20
Seattle, Washington 20
Honolulu, Hawaii 19
Van Nuys Immigration Court 19
Orlando, Florida 18
Elizabeth Detention Center 16
Patrick E. Moore Detention Center 16
Harlingen, Texas 15
Moshannon Valley Correctional Facility 15
Johnson County Jail 14
New York Varick 14
Nye County 14
El Paso, Texas 13
Omaha Juvenile 13
Eden Correctional Center 12
Louisville, Kentucky 12
Pennsylvania Dept. of Corr., State Corr. Inst. 12
Ulster Correctional Facility 12
Kansas City, Missouri 11
Leland Federal Building 11
Salt Lake City Detained 11
Clinton County Prison 10
Houston Service Processing Center 10
Calhoun County Jail 9
Charlotte Juvenile 9
Geauga County Detained 9
Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands 9
San Francisco Detained 9
MPP Court San Ysidro Port 8
River Correctional Facility 8
San Antonio Non-Detained Juvenile 8
Conroe Immigration Court (Female) 7
Joe Corley Detained Female 7
Kay County Detention Center 7
Pike County Prison 7
Polk County Detention Facility 7
Reno, Nevada 7
Sacramento Immigration Court 7
Denver Family Unit 6
Downstate Correctional Facility 6
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 6
San Francisco Non-Detained Juveniles 6
Arlington Juvenile 5
Boise, Idaho 5
Geo Group-Airpark Or Cedarhill Unit 5
Memphis Juvenile 5
Mia Non-Detained Juveniles 5
Nebraska Department of Corrections 5
Philadelphia Juvenile 5
Salt Lake City, Utah 5
Torrance County Detention Facility 5
Cambria County Prison 4
Detroit Juvenile 4
Geo Group- Flightline Unit 4
Illinois DOC- Statesville 4
Portland, Oregon 4
Rolling Plains Detention Center 4
San Francisco Annex 4
Arlington Juvenile Detainees 3
Atlanta Juvenile 3
Atlanta Non-Detained 3
Berks 3
Chicago Non-Detained Juveniles 3
Cleveland Detained Location 3
Hartford Juvenile 3
Iowa Department of Corrections 3
Las Vegas Juvenile 3
Maryland Correctional Institute 3
San Antonio Detained Juvenile 3
San Antonio Satellite Office 3
Varick Hudson County Jail 3
Allenwood Correctional Inst. 2
Arlington Detained Location 2
Baltimore Detained 2
Boston Unaccompanied Juvenile 2
Chippewa County Jail 2
El Centro, California 2
Elizabeth Video Hearings 2
Falls Church, Virginia 2
Harlingen, Texas 2
Houston Female Detained 2
Michigan Dept. of Corr., Prison of So. Michigan 2
St. Clair County Jail 2
Varick Street Juvenile 2
Anchorage, Alaska 1
Big Spring Corr. Ctr. (Airpark) 1
Catholic Charities 1
Chicago Detained Juveniles 1
Department of Corrections - Hagatna Detention Faci 1
Dept of Corrections- Hagatna Detention Center 1
Detained Juveniles At Government Expense 1
DHS/Ice-Enforcement Removal Office 1
El Paso Detained 1
Elizabeth - Video Hearings 1
Georgia Department of Corrections- Diagnostic 1
Giles W. Dalby Correctional Institution 1
Hartford Detained DOCket 1
Honolulu, Prison Detainees - PJKK Federal Bldg. 1
Iad Hloc -Yor, Pennsylvania 1
Los Angeles - North Los Angeles Street 1
Mia Detained Juveniles 1
Monroe County Jail 1
North Dakota Vtc 1
North Florida Reception Center (NFC) 1
Oklahoma IHP 1
Plymouth County Corretional Facility 1
San Juan, Puerto Rico 1
Southwest Key 1
St. Thomas, Virgin Islands 1
Tucson Juvenile 1
Winn Correctional Center 1
*MPP Court Calexico Port had a corrected figure with 1 closure less than that reported as of the end of June.

Footnotes

[1] This hearing site is located at: 333 South Miami Ave., Ste. 700.

[2] The hearing site for Baltimore is located at: 31 Hopkins Plaza, Room 440.

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