200,000 Deportation Cases Thrown Out as Mayorkas’ DHS Fails to File Paperwork

According to a new report from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, 200,000 deportation cases have been dismissed by Immigration Judges because the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), led by recently-impeached Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, failed to file a Notice to Appear (NTA). An NTA is issued upon an alien’s arrival at the border and serves as the first step in initiating removal proceedings under section 239(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).  After issuing an NTA to an alien, DHS must also then file the NTA with an immigration court to ensure the case can proceed. Filing an NTA is one of DHS’ most basic responsibilities to ensure cases are properly adjudicated in immigration court.

The Biden Administration has seen a higher number of dismissals due to failure to file an NTA compared to past administrations. During the Trump Administration, an average of 1.2 percent of new cases (approximately 3,880 per year) were dismissed. But those numbers have exploded since Secretary Mayorkas assumed office, jumping to an average of 8.5 percent dismissed from 2021-2023 (more than 60,000 cases per year). As a particularly stark example, under Mayorkas immigration courts in Miami and Houston dismissed more than 50 percent of new cases because NTAs were not filed.

If an NTA is not filed properly, DHS has the option to restart the process by issuing a new NTA to ensure that aliens have their cases heard and adjudicated. However, TRAC revealed that in nearly three-quarters of the 200,000 dismissals, DHS did nothing to remedy its mistake. The result is that the illegal aliens will not have to face any consequences for violating our immigration laws.

Currently, the immigration court case backlog sits at over 3.4 million cases. This is more than double the 1.4 million backlogged cases when President Biden took office in 2021, and nearly nine times the backlog of 396,978 cases in 2014. Shockingly, only a small fraction of cases are completed each year, resulting in many illegal aliens remaining in the country for years before cases are even heard. And, with policies that incentivize the flow of illegal aliens flooding the border and being released into the country, the backlog will only continue to grow.

Rather than implementing meaningful policy change to decrease the backlog, the Biden Administration has bypassed important authorities such as expedited removal in favor of mass catch-and-release policies. Expedited removal, under section 235(b)(1) of the INA, grants border officials the authority to quickly remove illegal aliens, while still providing for asylum claims to be heard. The Biden Administration, however, has instead sought to limit its use, quickly release aliens at the border, and place them in regular removal proceedings, which can take years. As a result, illegal aliens are flooding across our borders, with immigration agencies buckling under the weight, and the court backlog rising sharply. If the Biden Administration took advantage of existing statutory authorities like expedited removal, the backlog would be dramatically reduced.

Not content to usher in the worst border crisis in history, the Biden Administration is now failing to follow through on immigration cases too. With this combination of failed policies and non-enforcement, more and more illegal aliens will be able to take advantage and reside in the country indefinitely, creating enormous costs for American taxpayers. Under Secretary Mayorkas, DHS has been characterized by a lawless, open-borders agenda with no real intention to remove illegal aliens from the United States. The Secretary has proven time and time again that he is unfit to lead DHS, and the Senate must take action to officially remove him from office.

To learn more about the case against Secretary Mayorkas, click here.