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TRAC explains the difficulty of estimating how long it will take to complete removal proceedings in the future:
Only about four out of ten (43%) individuals in the current asylum backlog have an actual individual proceeding scheduled to hear the evidence on the merits of that asylum seeker’s claims.
The remaining majority of cases fall into one of two groups. For 35 percent of those waiting in the asylum backlog, the hearing scheduled is still at the “master calendar” stage. For these initial hearings, a group of individuals are summoned to appear together where they are advised of their rights and procedures, the charges and factual allegations contained in the [NTA] are explained, and cases are sorted as to what comes next. More than one of these master calendar hearings may occur if an individual needs more time to find an attorney to represent them, or an attorney once found, needs time to secure documents and obtain testimony to support the asylum application. Only after these master calendar hearings come to a conclusion, is an individual hearing scheduled on the asylum seeker’s claims. Only one hearing is set at any point in time. Thus, for those scheduled for master calendar hearings, no information is available on just when the actual merits hearing eventually may occur.
On the remaining 22 percent of asylum seekers waiting in the backlog, no hearing of either kind is currently scheduled. These don’t tend to be newly arriving cases. Those without any scheduled hearing have already been waiting an average of 1,092 days, or 3 years.
The percentage of asylum seekers with no next hearing scheduled has grown. For example, during FY 2020 only 12 percent of cases in the backlog had no hearing scheduled as compared with 22 percent now.
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