Federal immigration courts across the nation are postponing thousands of deportation hearings until 2019 so they can focus on the flood of Central American children who illegally crossed the southwest border last year.
The postponements apply to immigrants who are not being detained and who the government considers to be less of a priority for removal. Rescheduling notices started going out this month, though several Atlanta area immigration attorneys said their clients have not received any.
The nation's 237 immigration judges are now plowing through more than 400,000 pending cases. On average, it takes 583 days to resolve one, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research organization based at Syracuse University.
“The rescheduling of non-priority cases for priority cases is status quo for us. It is something that happens all the time,” said Lauren Alder Reid, counsel for legislative and public affairs for the U.S. Executive Office for Immigration Review. “From that perspective, it is not anything new or different. It is just a larger number of people than happens on a daily basis.”
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