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New Jersey 101.5
September 10, 2017

NJ has 31,000 immigration cases pending in courts — Most don’t end in deportation
By David Matthau


There have been a lot of rumors swirling in recent weeks about a major illegal-immigration sweep that was planned for later this month. Now we learn “Operation Mega” has been put on hold by the Department of Homeland Security because of the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey in Texas and the anticipated damage by Hurricane Irma in Florida. In the meantime, immigration courts in New Jersey and other parts of the nation remain backlogged. Data from TRAC, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, shows more than 31,000 people in the Garden State have cases pending in immigration court, while nationally the number tops 617,000. According to Sue Long, the co-director of TRAC and a professor of managerial statistic at SU, immigration deportation cases are pending in every New Jersey county. “For years, Congress has expanded immigration enforcement but they didn’t increase the number of judges available to hear cases,” she said.


Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University
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