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It’s a pressure cooker. Not only because each immigrant’s fate eventually will be decided here, but because judges complain their jobs have never been busier or more politicized. There’s a backlog of almost 900,000 cases, according to TRAC. The Justice Department, which oversees the immigration court system, established a quota for judges to complete 700 cases per year, an especially high hurdle in New York City, according to a WNYC analysis, because it’s the nation’s busiest immigration court. Meanwhile, the judges have new constraints in their ability to grant asylum because former Attorney General Jeff Sessions decided certain cases are not eligible. Judges are now granting asylum less often — even in New York, where immigrants historically had an easier time winning. Many judges and lawyers believe these actions show how the immigration court is becoming a vehicle for President Trump’s immigration agenda.
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