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CLEVELAND — Juventino Trujillo came to the immigration court here in August for his initial hearing, almost a year after authorities had detained the Mexican immigrant. His next court date? Jan 22, 2018.
Despite several initiatives by President Barack Obama’s administration, the backlog of open cases in the country’s immigration courts continues to grow to record levels.
Trujillo’s is one of more than 342,000 cases pending nationwide as of the end of July, which is an all-time high and more than twice the backlog of a decade ago, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, which gathers and analyzes data from government agencies.
Of the cases, more than 4,700 are in Ohio, where three judges preside over the only immigration court in the state, located on the 13th floor of a federal building in downtown Cleveland. Back in 2000, Ohio’s backlog was only 160 cases.
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