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According to Fronteras, a joint effort by public radio reporters covering immigration, the Eloy Detention Center’s immigration court was closed to halt the spread of measles after the outbreak began. Its reopening has been delayed twice; it’s currently scheduled to reopen July 18. One immigration attorney told Fronteras that the closure has delayed bond hearings for detainees who may be eligible for freedom pending their hearings.
The closure is worsening the nation’s immigration court backlog, which was already severe. According to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which tracks immigration court data, it took an average of 668 days for an immigration court to be heard as of May of this year. In Arizona, that number was 748. The average at Eloy, 121 days, is quite a bit lower because ICE prioritizes the cases of people who are detained pending their immigration hearings.
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