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Minnesota’s backlog goes back to 2006, after President George W. Bush hired thousands of new immigration agents and stepped up raids in factories and communities. The Obama administration picked up the pace, deporting an estimated 1.9 million to date.
There are now 21,000 immigration agents patrolling the borders and $18 billion spent annually on enforcement. After a hiring freeze imposed in January 2011, the number of judges handling the cases dropped from 272 to 249.
The nation’s immigration backlog increased 104 percent between 2006 and the end of fiscal year 2013, according to data obtained by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a Syracuse University center that studies the immigration legal system. The Minnesota court’s caseload increased by 184 percent during the same period, according to TRAC.
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