New immigration court cases plummet on LI, across U.S. since Biden policy change

The number of new court cases involving immigrants lacking permanent legal status has plummeted on Long Island and around the country since President Joe Biden's June order restricting entry into the country for most asylum-seekers, according to a new federal data analysis.

Biden's presidential proclamation, issued amid a record increase of illegal border crossings, stated that migrants who cross the border without authorization — absent exceptional circumstances — wouldn't be eligible for asylum and would be subject to expedited deportation. It didn't affect immigrants who previously filed legal claims for asylum.

In New York State, new case numbers dropped 74% from December to July, while cases fell 68% nationwide and nearly 61% on Long Island during that same time frame, according to the analysis from Syracuse University-based Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC.

The policy is a change from the practice of letting most people who sought asylum after crossing the border illegally be freed from custody and live in the United States while awaiting court proceedings.

Under Biden’s order, migrants can be returned into Mexico or their country of origin when the seven-day average of daily border crossings exceeds 2,500 people. The restrictions remain in place until 14 days after the seven-day average drops below 1,500 people.

The rule allows unaccompanied children, victims of a severe form of trafficking and other noncitizens with a valid visa or other lawful permission to legally enter the United States. People deemed ineligible for asylum still can apply for protection under terms of an anti-torture international human rights treaty.

The restrictions also don't apply to immigrants who present themselves at official border crossings with an appointment provided through a U.S. Customs and Border Protection mobile app known as CBP One.

Only noncitizens physically present in the country can file applications seeking asylum — which protects from deportation — because they've suffered persecution or fear they will in their home countries due to race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion, according to federal authorities.

'Achieving its objective'

Immigration experts and advocates told Newsday that Biden's policy appears to have had an impact on reducing the number of cases clogging the immigration court system.

While fewer cases could signal an eventual letup of the influx of immigrants that has strained resources in New York City and elsewhere, advocates for the newcomers expressed concern about the human cost of the policy change.

Federal data shows a majority of new immigration court cases involve asylum requests, but the TRAC analysis doesn't distinguish the nature of new filings. For example, the cases also can include migrants who have been in the country for decades and face immigration proceedings after arrests on unrelated charges.

The 68% national drop in new immigration court proceedings accounts for cases falling from 263,974 in December to 83,018 in July, according to TRAC, a nonprofit research group that compiles federal data on subjects including immigration.

The decline, TRAC found, mostly involved less immigrants coming from Venezuela, Mexico and Guatemala.

"The order seems to be achieving its objective," said Susan Long, one of the co-directors of TRAC.

But Long cautioned it's unclear what percentage of the drop is directly attributable to Biden's order. Immigrants seeking asylum have one year to file a claim in court.

The 74% statewide decline saw new cases fall from 29,152 in December to 7,536 in July, TRAC's analysis shows. New York’s decline was the second-largest in the nation, trailing only Texas.

Locally, the nearly 61% drop Islandwide accounted for 381 new cases in July in Suffolk — a nearly 67% drop from December's 1,142 new cases — and a nearly 53% decline in Nassau, with new cases dropping in that same time from 829 to 393, the figures show.

Elise de Castillo, executive director of CARECEN, an organization based in Hempstead and Brentwood that provides free legal services and education to new immigrants, said Biden's June order had real-world implications.

"Any time you're limiting an individual's lawful right to apply for asylum, there's going to be repercussions," she said. " ... It means that people who are fleeing extreme violence and persecution in their country won't be able to come here to seek safety. And that affects members of the community here on Long Island as their loved ones may not be able to seek the same safety that they did."

Similarly large reductions in new cases were seen in New York City.

For more than two years, the city has been the flashpoint in the region's struggle with an influx of migrants from Latin America and other regions. Since spring 2022, more than 210,000 migrants have arrived in the city, costing taxpayers $5.15 billion through the end of fiscal 2024 next month, according to Mayor Eric Adams' administration. 

Courts 'still overwhelmed' 

 It's not just a steep decline in new court cases.

Data from Customs and Border Protection shows a 54% drop in total interactions between border agents and migrants last month, compared to December.

The Department of Homeland Security said it also has doubled the percentage of noncitizens processed through expedited removal since the June order, while decreasing by 70% the number of immigrants released pending their removal proceedings.

But many immigration experts said migrants likely will adjust to the new policy by illegally entering the country but declining to seek asylum — a time-consuming and often costly process that involves hearings before an immigration court judge that still can end in deportation.

Andrew Arthur, a fellow with the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for stricter immigration enforcement, said Biden's order helped reduce new asylum claims. But he added that credit also belongs to renewed efforts by the Mexican government to enforce its own immigrations laws.

An extended severe heat wave near the southern border this summer also likely deterred some migrants from making the grueling journey to the United States, Arthur said.

"The order is having an impact. But I think there's a lot more here," Arthur said of the other factors potentially resulting in fewer immigration court cases. 

Cornell Law School professor Stephen W. Yale-Loehr, who codirects a clinic at the university that helps people apply for asylum, said the long term legal viability of Biden's order remains undetermined.

"Immigrants' rights advocates are challenging the new restrictions as illegal, but it may be some time until a court decides their lawsuit," Yale-Loehr said.

Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst at the Washington, D.C.-based Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group, said despite the significant drop in new cases, "Immigration courts are still overwhelmed."

Justice Department statistics show courts nationwide have more than 1.1 million asylum cases pending as of March, the most recent statistics available.

Sister Janet Kinney, director of the Brentwood-based Long Island Immigration Clinic, said the impact of Biden's proclamation has yet to be felt by her organization, which provides legal support to immigrants without documentation. Kinney said the clinic has a four-month wait list for legal help and still is working with immigrants who entered the country in 2023.

"Even if the new cases slow down, we're still going to be working with the old ones," she said. "So, it's going to take a while for us to really see the impact."

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.