New Immigration Court Cases Fall Sharply After Biden Entry Restrictions Imposed
Published Jul 11, 2024
New Immigration Court cases dropped sharply in June following President Biden’s June 4, 2024, proclamation severely restricting entry for those seeking asylum.[1] See Figure 1. Case-by-case court records compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) show just 100,000 new cases arrived in June, down more than 40,000 cases from May totals. Compared with six months ago when new Court filings reached a high of 264,049, the fall in June to only 100,909 cases was dramatic.
The drop occurred for immigrants from most countries. Six months ago the largest number of new Court cases were from Venezuela. In December 2023 immigrants from Venezuela made up one out of every five new cases, and totaled 54,549. By June their numbers had dropped to 13,085, over 40,000 fewer. Immigrants from Mexico, in second place as the most numerous during December 2023 dropped from 44,650 that month to 16,302 during June. Guatemalans who were the third most numerous in December dropped from just over 25,000 to under 7,000 in June.
Among the top 20 nationalities last December, immigrants from Venezuela, Peru, Guinea, Russia, and Senegal experienced the largest relative drops in new Court filings. For immigrants from each of these countries, the June numbers were 25 percent or less of their respective December totals. Immigrants from Cuba and Haiti were among those experiencing the smaller relative declines.
The number of new Court cases for each of the top 20 nationalities in December 2023 are shown in Table 1, along with their respective numbers in June 2024. India stood out for being the only country in the top 20 which actually had a larger number of immigrants with new cases arriving at the Immigration Court in June (4,909) than it had during December six months earlier (3,208).
Changes in Court filings by month and year for every nationality group are available in TRAC’s New Immigration Court Filings dashboard. Updated with June 2023 numbers, this free web tool offers information by language, age and gender, along with changes in the arrivals for each county and state in the United States. Available here.
| Nationality* | During December 2023 | During June 2024 | Change | Percent June/Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Cases | 264,049 | 100,909 | -163,140 | 38.2% |
| Venezuela | 54,549 | 13,085 | -41,464 | 24.0% |
| Mexico | 44,650 | 16,302 | -28,348 | 36.5% |
| Guatemala | 25,011 | 6,772 | -18,239 | 27.1% |
| Colombia | 19,215 | 7,648 | -11,567 | 39.8% |
| Cuba | 18,273 | 11,478 | -6,795 | 62.8% |
| Ecuador | 17,353 | 6,032 | -11,321 | 34.8% |
| Honduras | 15,748 | 5,987 | -9,761 | 38.0% |
| Nicaragua | 9,426 | 2,414 | -7,012 | 25.6% |
| Haiti | 8,783 | 6,374 | -2,409 | 72.6% |
| China | 6,372 | 2,652 | -3,720 | 41.6% |
| Peru | 5,703 | 1,353 | -4,350 | 23.7% |
| El Salvador | 5,526 | 2,549 | -2,977 | 46.1% |
| Guinea | 4,594 | 102 | -4,492 | 2.2% |
| Dominican Republic | 3,298 | 1,380 | -1,918 | 41.8% |
| Brazil | 3,282 | 2,368 | -914 | 72.2% |
| India | 3,208 | 4,909 | 1,701 | 153.0% |
| Russia | 2,686 | 667 | -2,019 | 24.8% |
| Senegal | 2,560 | 27 | -2,533 | 1.1% |
| Turkey | 1,643 | 748 | -895 | 45.5% |
| Uzbekistan | 958 | 109 | -849 | 11.4% |
| Other Nationalities | 11,211 | 7,953 | -3,258 | 70.9% |