DOJ lifts Trump-era case quotas for immigration judges
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Immigration judges will no longer be required to close 700 cases per year to get a “satisfactory” rating.
The U.S. Department of Justice is ending the case quota system that was implemented in 2018 during the Trump administration with the aim of clearing backlogs, report Law360 and CNN. Dozens of immigration judges retired or quit following the quota announcement.
A spokesperson for the Executive Office for Immigration Review told Law360 that the office is developing new performance measures “that will accurately reflect the reality of an immigration judge’s workload.”
As of September, the immigration case backlog was 1.45 million cases, up from 680,000 cases in February 2018.
The Biden administration is trying to reduce the backlog with a proposed rule that would allow asylum officers to hear and decide asylum claims at the border, when a person subject to expedited removal establishes a credible fear of persecution. If an asylum request is denied, the immigrant could request a de novo administrative review by an immigration judge under a streamlined process.
