Immigration judges have dismissed roughly 200,000 deportation cases because the Biden administration didn’t file the relevant paperwork, according to a report from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) released on Wednesday.
According to the TRAC report, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is obligated to provide a Notice to Appear (NTA) to immigration courts when the agency believes an illegal migrant should be removed.
Biden’s DHS failed to issue NTAs in several instances by the time of a scheduled hearing in immigration court, limiting judges’ ability to hear the case and forcing a dismissal.
Read: Democrats Slip Millions In Climate, Equity Earmarks Into Government Funding Bills
TRAC is a data collection and distribution network at Syracuse University that provides “comprehensive information about federal government staffing, spending, and enforcement activities,” according to its website.
“Troubling is the almost total lack of transparency on where and why these DHS failures occurred,” the report reads. “Equally troubling is the lack of solid information on what happened to these many immigrants when DHS never rectified its failure by reissuing and filing new NTAs to restart their Court cases.”
Prior to the Biden administration, it was relatively rare for an immigration court to dismiss a deportation case because DHS didn’t file an NTA, according to the report. Less than 4% of cases were thrown out because of a missing NTA from 2014 to 2020; the number spiked to almost 12% of cases in 2022.
Certain cities in Texas and Florida had the largest percentage of cases thrown out under Biden, at a roughly 50% dismissal rate, according to the report. Cities in New Jersey, Washington and California had lower-than-average rates at below 4%.
Read: Florida AG Moody Leads 17 States Filing Amicus Brief Against Biden Border-Related “Gamesmanship”
When a deportation case is thrown out because of a failure to file an NTA, the report states that DHS is often forced to file a new NTA and restart from scratch. Only about a quarter of the 200,000 deportation cases initially dismissed under Biden had them restarted within a year by DHS’ new issue of an NTA, leaving the majority of other cases unresolved.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in January touted that the Biden administration has deported a “record” number of migrants from the U.S., having expelled more than “470,000” since Title 42 ended in May of 2023. But Mayorkas failed to mention that the number of deportations is still far lower than the total number of illegal migrants entering the country; Customs and Border Protection recorded over 6.5 million migrant apprehensions from fiscal years 2021 to 2024.
Read: Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz Slams Dems For Making President Biden’s Impeachment Hearing About Trump
Mayorkas and the Biden administration have been criticized for border policies that have allowed a surge of illegal immigration. Biden claims he is unable to enforce border security without the approval of Congress but, in private, has been weighing executive options to do so anyway.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Help support the Tampa Free Press by making any small donation by clicking here.
Android Users, Click To Download The Tampa Free Press App And Never Miss A Story. Follow Us On Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our free newsletter.