The backlog of deportation cases in the U.S. has risen to 437,000 – double what it was under President George W. Bush. According to the Government Accountability Office, the average wait time for illegals to face a judge grew from 198 days in 2006 to 404 days under the Obama administration.
Critics argue his constant push for amnesty put the public at-risk.
“Some individuals who were in proceedings, criminal aliens, had gone out and committed additional crimes,” says Andrew Arthur at the Center for Immigration Studies. “Moreover, some of these invdividuals just simply disappeared during the years that their cases take to resolve.”
Arthur says the backlog has grown to more that 1,400 cases per judge.
“At the present time we have just over 300 immigration judges for the entire docket, so the Department of Justice needs to hire additional judges, but also support staff and judicial law clerks,” he says.
Some cases have now been pushed out as far as February 2022.
“The Obama administration constantly held out the possibility of amnesty, so consequently individuals who normally would have finished up their cases and gone home, decided to drag out their immigration cases longer,” says Arthur.