More than 1.5 million people in the United States are awaiting a decision on their asylum applications as the Supreme Court evaluates the merits of the Trump administration’s Title 42 health policy, which could be overturned as early as Tuesday.
According to an analysis of federal data by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, the number of pending asylum applications has skyrocketed over the past decade, and fears have grown that lifting Title 42 could unleash a new wave of migration across the U.S.-Mexico border.
According to the analysis, the total number of asylum seekers is 1,565,966, with 767,882 awaiting hearings before judges in the Department of Justice’s Immigration Courts and 778,084 awaiting hearings with US Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Department of Homeland Security.
Sunday at the border near El Paso, long queues of migrants wait to be brought to US Customs and Border Protection officials.
James Keivom
Political instability in Mexico, Venezuela, Haiti, Central America and other regions, according to the Syracuse clearinghouse, is the cause of the escalating number of asylum claims, which has outpaced the number of immigration judges and asylum officers appointed by recent presidential administrations.
In the previous decade, Immigration Court claims have increased sevenfold, from 100,000 asylum applications in fiscal year 2012 to over 750,000 cases as of September 30, 2018.
In October and November, an additional 30,000 cases were filed, bringing the total to 787,882.
The clearinghouse, which analyzes information acquired through the Freedom of Information Act and has established a large database that spans decades, stated that similar figures from the USCIS are not yet accessible.
It cautioned, as have many border officials, that the elimination of Title 42 could “lead to an upsurge of asylum seekers arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border.”
A father carrying a toddler surrenders to border agents on Saturday near El Paso after crossing the border.
James Keivom
The Trump administration established the health policy in March 2020, allowing border agents to remove migrants without first hearing their asylum applications on the grounds that they could spread the coronavirus.
In the 12 months ended on September 30, a record-breaking 2,4 million illegal immigrants crossed the southern border of the United States. About forty percent of individuals were deported to Mexico pursuant to Title 42.
Tens of thousands of migrants have gathered at the southern border in anticipation of the policy’s termination.
The Border Patrol expects that up to 5,000 migrants will enter the El Paso processing center per day, easily exceeding the facility’s capacity.
The Biden administration, which advocates allowing Title 42 to expire, has created an improvised structure larger than a football field in anticipation for the influx of migrants.
The health policy made its way through the nation’s legal system until last week, when Chief Justice John Roberts heard an emergency appeal from 19 Republican-led states and maintained Title 42 while the justices consider accepting the case.
In November, a federal court in Washington, DC ordered that the program must expire on December 21.
In response to Roberts, the Biden administration claimed that Title 42 had outlived its usefulness but asked the court for more time to prepare for its repeal.
»The backlog of US asylum petitions has surpassed 1.5 million, a record high: study«