Immigration Court Backlog Has Now Reached 3 Million Pending Cases

The U.S. border crisis has seen immigration court backlogs hit new highs, as judges are swamped with an average of 4,500 pending cases each.

As seen from an aerial view a U.S. Border Patrol agent watches as illegal immigrants walk into the United States after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico, in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Sept. 30, 2023. John Moore/Getty Images

Another grim milestone in the ongoing United States border crisis has been reached after the backlog of pending cases in immigration courts passed three million this November.

According to a new report from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a nonprofit data research center at Syracuse University, this figure represents a “new record,” with the backlog never reaching such highs before. Even with a record number of judges working on the cases and a faster completion rate, the flood of cases is proving too much to keep up with.