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Because of how the U.S. immigration system works, states have really no control over how many pending cases they have, according to Austin Kocher, a research assistant professor with the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. Immigration courts, which are within the Department of Justice, are responsible for adjudicating immigration cases involving noncitizens generally who have been charged by the Department of Homeland Security with being in violation of immigration law. Judges resolve questions such as whether an individual should be allowed to remain in the U.S. or whether an individual’s application to avoid deportation – an asylum request, for example – should be granted, according to the institute.
There are about 70 courts across the country and not every state has one. There are also immigration courts in some U.S. territories, such as Puerto Rico and Guam, and they have smaller backlogs than most states as of November 2023.
Kocher says just because a noncitizen who arrives at the southern border might have their case assigned to a court in Texas, nothing stops them from moving to another city and “living there until their hearing comes up.” But he notes that Miami has the largest number of pending cases among cities, and the size of a state’s or city’s backlog generally correlates to where migrants want to be, at least temporarily.
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