Backlog of Immigration Cases Continues to Grow

27 Oct 2010

A new record for the number of immigration cases awaiting review was made this September. At the end of September 2010, there were a total of 261,083 immigration cases awaiting review by the Immigration Courts, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). This backlog has grown by five percent since the end of June 2010 and is over 1/3 higher than the backlog reported at the end of Fiscal Year 2008. Wait times, however, have declined since the last report released by TRAC (June 2010). The average wait time for pending cases nationally is now 456 days, compared to 459 days at the end of June 2010. California has the longest average wait time (630 days). Massachusetts and Nebraska have the second and third longest average wait times, respectively (Massachusetts - 615 days; Nebraska - 519 days).