AILA Doc No. 15012747
Dated January 27, 2015
(20 Jan 2015) During the first quarter of FY 2015 (October – December), there has been a drop in the disposition times of cases in the U.S. Immigration Court from some key Central American countries. According to the latest case-by-case court records obtained by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), average processing times for individuals from El Salvador dropped from an average of 403 days in FY 2014 to 291 days in the first quarter of FY 2015. Average processing times for individuals from Guatemala similarly fell from 422 days to 349 days, while for those from Honduras the drop in average processing times decreased from 275 days to 200 days.
These shortened times reflect in part the effect of a new priority docketing system that was designed to expedite proceedings for the unaccompanied juveniles and women with children who now make up a significant segment of the caseload from these countries.
However, giving priority attention to these cases may have has delayed the resolution of proceedings for individuals from other countries. For example, individuals from Mexico — still the largest segment of the court’s caseload — saw processing times increase from an average of 473 days in FY 2014 to 533 days in the first quarter of FY 2015. And the backlog of unresolved cases awaiting court action has risen from 408,037 at the end of September 2014 to a record 429,878 as of the end of December.
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University- Copyright 2015
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