U.S. Immigration Courts Close More Cases but Nearly 80% End in Removal Orders
Key Takeaways
- It has been reported that the Syracuse University TRAC database shows a modest reduction in the immigration court backlog to about 3.32 million cases as of Feb. 2026.
- Case closures are outpacing new filings in early FY2026—closures were 1.65 times new cases—but about 79.6% of decisions issued so far were removal (deportation) orders.
- Asylum cases make up roughly 70% of pending dockets; asylum grants remain rare in recent months.
- Bond hearing approval rates are low (about 27.8%), and only about one-third of respondents had legal representation at key hearings.
Data and trends from TRAC
It has been reported that the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University found 3,318,099 pending immigration court cases nationwide as of the end of February 2026, down from 3,377,998 at the end of December 2025 — a decline of roughly 60,000 cases. For the first five months of fiscal year 2026 (October 2025–February 2026), immigration courts closed 333,957 cases while receiving 201,878 new filings, meaning closures ran at about 1.65 times the pace of new cases. The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), which supervises immigration judges, has therefore accelerated throughput, but the backlog remains historically large.
Who is most affected
Pending asylum claims (applications for protection from persecution or torture) account for roughly 2.32 million of the cases—about 70%—and are a major driver of long timelines because they involve complex fact-finding and credibility assessments. TRAC’s data show that removal orders dominate outcomes: 262,021 deportation orders in FY2026-to-date, a 79.6% removal rate. Nationalities most frequently subject to removal orders include Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela and Colombia, reflecting ongoing migration from Latin America. Geographically, Miami-Dade, Cook County (Chicago), Queens and Brooklyn in New York, and Los Angeles County hold the largest inventories.
What this means for people in proceedings
For people in court, the trend toward faster adjudication does not necessarily improve individual chances. Asylum approvals remained low: only 492 asylum grants were reported in February 2026 (about 45.6% of all relief grants that month), while many respondents face removal orders. Bond hearings (where detained migrants seek release on bond or parole) resulted in approval in about 27.8% of hearings through February. Legal representation is improving slightly — reported counsel rates rose to 33.3% in February from 26.7% in December — but nearly two-thirds of respondents still face critical hearings without lawyers, a factor strongly correlated with worse outcomes. Even if courts maintain the current pace, analysts say it will take years to work through the backlog, meaning long waits, uncertainty, and hard choices for migrants seeking relief.
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