While San Diego County’s two immigration courts are close to one of the busiest borders in the country, they’re only dealing with a fraction of the cases that other major cities are. NBC 7 investigative reporter Alexis Rivas reports.
President Donald Trump promised the largest deportation in American history. But there could be a snag in the president’s plans — our backlogged immigration court system.
According to data journalists at Syracuse University’s TRAC (Transactional Records Access Clearing House), there were more than 3.7 million cases working their way through the system nationwide at the end of October.
The backlog means people who deserve asylum protection wait years to get it, while others who are not eligible are allowed to stay in the country longer, according to Kathleen Bush-Joseph with the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute/
While San Diego County’s two immigration courts are close to one of the busiest borders in the country, they’re only dealing with a fraction of the cases that other major cities are.
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February data puts the case number at San Diego’s downtown immigration courthouse at 5,173. Cases where immigrants are in custody move even faster, like those at the Otay Mesa location. Its backlog was 920.
Those numbers are nothing close to the 282,341 cases working their way through courts in Chicago, the 232,009 cases in Dallas or the 113,213 cases moving through Los Angeles County’s three courts. You can see the current backlog data here.
San Diego immigration attorney Sergio Perez said our numbers are a surprise to many.
“I know it’s kind of counterintuitive right?" Perez said. "We’re right on the border. We probably should have the most cases.”
Perez said that’s not the case because most people who claim asylum in San Diego don’t wind up staying here.
“San Diego is not a destination city, generally,” Perez told NBC 7. “It’s a transit-through city. Most people, if they make it across, they’re heading somewhere else: LA, Chicago, New York.”
Venezuelan Iris Halpern is a good example of the backlog’s impact. She was apprehended crossing the border in 2021, but government prosecutors still have not filed paperwork to start the court process.
“There are not enough immigration judges to be adjudicating all of these cases,” Bush-Joseph said, “so they simply cannot keep up with the volume of cases being filed.”
Retired immigration judge James Fujimoto agreed.
“It's hard to put it into perspective when you really think about it, because, essentially, it's charging each immigration judge with [4,000] or 5,000 cases,” Fujimoto said.
A 2023 congressional report found that even if the total number of judges were doubled, to 1,400, it would still take 10 years to clear the national backlog.
Fujimoto said the courts also need more support staff, including researchers, translators and prosecutors. He said a wave of new cases could crush the courts and slow the president's plans.
A bipartisan immigration reform bill, which included hiring more judges, failed last summer after Trump urged Republicans in Congress to oppose it.
Halpern has now filed a petition to stay. Since arriving, she married a U.S. citizen and was offered temporary protected status because she fled Venezuela. She worries, though, that stricter policies and jammed courts could still complicate her future.
Earlier this week, Trump revoked TPS status for almost 350,000 Venezuelans, effective in 60 days, NBC News reported, so it's not yet clear what effect that could have on Halpern.
How long does it take?
You can find out how long typical cases take to get a hearing by visiting the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services website.
