Illegal aliens don't just come to the country. They come and then file meritless asylum claims. The immigration courts then give the illegal aliens a court date two, three, or even more years down the road.
In the interim, they're allowed to remain in America. And many do not bother showing up for that court date.
The ones who do show up are coached by dishonest lawyers to cast their economic migration as "fleeing" something or other.
James Varney of Real Clear Investigations writes that those court dates will now be... almost a full decade down the line, in some jurisdictions.
New migrants pouring into the U.S. after the Biden administration let a COVID-19 restriction called Title 42 expire last week will not break the nation's stretched court system. The system is already shattered, according to several former judges, immigration experts, and Department of Homeland Security data.
The average wait time for a "Notice to Appear" before a judge at one of the nation's 66 immigration courts is now four and a half years. In some cities it is much longer. In New York City, new migrants do not have to appear in court until 2032. This growing backlog creates an incentive for more people to cross the border and request asylum as each new case pushes assigned court dates further into the future. In the meantime, many migrants are permitted to live and work in the United States.
"It's well past broken," said Art Arthur, a former immigration court judge and now a resident fellow at the conservative Center for Immigration Studies. "The courts weren't set up for this. When you don't do anything at the front end, the back end just collapses. Everybody who shows up now knows the chances are 90 percent or better you're going to be here indefinitely or forever."
The impact on the courts of the expiration of Title 42 -- a restriction former President Trump implemented to expel migrants, even if they were seeking asylum -- is one of several unknowns the U.S. will confront in the current wave of migration. The cost to taxpayers is also unclear, though complaints have been mounting in border states that must absorb the crush and in self-proclaimed sanctuary cities that are struggling with pledges made years ago to house and care for migrants.
Federal agencies charged with handling immigration ‒ including the Department of Homeland Security, the Executive Office of Immigration Review, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) -- did not respond to requests for comment or declined to answer questions on the record.
But a Feb. 18, 2023, internal ICE document obtained by RealClearInvestigations listing the top 10 backlogged locations shows court dates are already far in the future....
The document shows New York leading the list as "fully booked through October 2032." That time lag tops Florida locations, booked until 2028; Atlanta and San Antonio, where a migrant in the system does not have to appear until 2027; and a handful of other cities such as Chicago, Baltimore, Milwaukee, and Indianapolis, where the backlog carries into 2026.
Early estimates are that at least 11,000 arrivals could pour into the U.S. every day with Title 42 lifted. But much smaller totals have clogged the system for years. Baltimore, for instance, is "mostly booked" with fewer than 3,500 people, while Atlanta has a four-year wait time for just 1,757 people, according to ICE's February figures.
The CPB encountered 200,000 illegal aliens in April alone.
And then Biden let Title 42 lapse with no replacement.