Suffolk immigration deportation orders among highest in state as NYC numbers surge

Nearly 1,100 immigrants without legal documentation living in Suffolk County were ordered deported by immigration judges between October and the end of March, ranking behind only New York City statewide during that period, according to new federal data released last week by a nonprofit research group.

Nationwide, the highest number of removal orders issued by immigration judges during the first six months of fiscal 2024 — at just under 11,000 — went to immigrants living in the city, primarily in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, according to Department of Justice figures obtained by the Syracuse University-based Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan group that tracks federal data, including immigration.

TRAC's rankings merge the city's five boroughs into one region but separately list Long Island's counties. Nassau had about 300 fewer deportation orders than Suffolk.

The rise in deportation orders — which are significantly higher than in recent years — reflects, in part, an increased number of judges hearing cases but doesn't necessarily mean the immigrants are actually leaving the country, as many don't show up for court hearings, experts said.

NYC on pace for 50% jump

Court-ordered immigration removal orders have been on a steep rise in recent months in New York City, with 10,897 issued during the first half of the fiscal year, most often to those seeking asylum, federal figures shows.

At its current pace, there would be nearly 22,000 deportation orders issued in fiscal year 2024 in the city, a nearly 50% jump from the 14,671 court directives issued in all of fiscal 2023.

It's unclear, however, how New York City's ongoing migrant crisis has contributed to its skyrocketing number of removal orders. That's because immigration court cases typically take an average of 2½ years to complete from start to finish due to lengthy court backlogs, TRAC's data shows. Cases ending in removal orders went somewhat faster, at roughly one year and nine months, records show.

As of the end of March, 3.5 million active cases were pending before immigration courts nationwide, federal data shows.

“It takes a while for cases to go through,” said Susan Long, one of the co-directors of TRAC. “So this data is reflecting not just the most recent people that are arriving … but the court's capacity to process these [older] cases.”

While Long Island hasn't seen as many recent migrants compared to the city, TRAC's data shows a high number of migrants have been nonetheless ordered removed from Nassau and Suffolk in recent years.

Since 2022, New York City has absorbed more than 175,000 new migrants, creating a complicated and costly sheltering crisis that it continues to struggle with.

But immigration experts said it's likely only a small percentage of those recent migrants are among those receiving removal orders in recent months because of the court backlog.

From Oct. 1 through March 30, 1,097 immigrants who listed Suffolk as their primary residence were ordered removed — the most of any region outside of the city and the 15th-highest among all counties nationwide, according to TRAC's data.

At its current pace, Suffolk would slightly exceed its highest year for deportation orders — 2,156 in fiscal 2019 — since at least 1998. There were 1,920 deportation orders to Suffolk residents in fiscal 2023, data shows.

Nassau, meanwhile, had 794 removal orders for immigrants who listed the county as their home during that same six-month period, trailing behind the city, Suffolk, Rockland and Westchester counties, records indicate.

At its current pace, the number of deportation orders issued for Nassau residents in fiscal 2024 would lap the 1,487 from fiscal 2023, but would still trail the 1,805 orders issued in fiscal 2019, records show.

Many immigrants, experts said, likely relocated to the Island for work opportunities or because of the cost of living in the city.

“A lot of the people who show up in New York are single adult males,” said Andrew Arthur, a resident fellow in law and policy for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based research group. “And if there is a community of people that they know or that they're related to living on the Island, that's where they're gonna go.”

In total, migrants living in New York State received 16,533 judicial deportation orders, behind only Texas with 24,410, during the first six months of fiscal 2024, federal data shows.

The majority of immigrants ordered deported statewide during that period are from Ecuador, Colombia and Guatemala, under the age of 44 and are most often male, the data shows.

C. Mario Russell, executive director of the Center for Migration Studies, a Manhattan-based think tank, said Long Island and New York City asylum-seekers want their day in court and would prefer to have a chance to legally remain in the country.

“People want to adjudicate. People want solutions. People want to regularize their status. People want that opportunity,” said Russell, who has practiced immigration law for 25 years. “They haven't come this far and this long with this great of a challenge and sacrifice, just to not even try to have their case heard.”

More judges, more removals

During the first half of fiscal 2024, about a half-million immigrants were deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement or by Customs and Border Protection agents, according to federal data.

Those figures, however, don't include the nearly 137,000 immigrants nationwide who were ordered deported by immigration judges during those six months, figures show. 

The pace of new removal orders, TRAC said, is 50% higher than during the peak of the Trump administration, in part because of an expanded number of immigration judges on the bench. Federal data shows the number of immigration judges hearing cases has risen almost 30% from 2021, from 559 to 725. 

“The courts are issuing more removal letters than ever before because there are more judges and more courtrooms,” said Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst at the Washington, D.C.-based Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group. 

Even with more judges and courtrooms, the overwhelming flood of migrants, largely coming through the southern border, has still outpaced the ability of the courts to rapidly hear cases, leading to the continued backlog, experts said.

Meanwhile, New York City remains among the most attractive locations nationwide for those lacking legal documentation, contributing to the high number of removal orders.

New York is considered a “sanctuary city” in that officials generally decline to share information with federal immigration authorities about the status of noncitizens. The city also has a high number of immigration advocates to assist new arrivals and has a legal mandate, known as a consent decree, that requires it to provide shelter to anyone who asks for it.

'Lost in the shuffle'

While immigration judges are increasing the pace of removal orders, relatively few immigrants that have been ordered removed from the country were able to secure attorneys to represent them.

Nationwide, only 15% of immigrants who received removal orders had attorneys — and that figure drops to only 13% in New York City, TRAC data shows. Experts said a shortage of immigration attorneys contributes to the problem. Meanwhile, asylum-seekers who secure representation have a better than 90% chance of being legally allowed to stay in the country, federal figures show.

George Terezakis, a Mineola immigration attorney, said many migrants are fleeing persecution, violence or political instability in their home country and deserve an opportunity to have their cases heard — with the benefit of an attorney.

“Many of these cases really are meritorious, and that's why we have immigration judges,” Terezakis said. The law should be applied “to the facts of the individual case. And that's why we need lawyers to help the client express themselves.”

While federal data shows the number of deportation orders issued by the courts, they don't necessarily indicate if the immigrant has, in fact, left the country. In most cases, that's because the noncitizen doesn't know about the removal hearing, or chose not to attend. 

In 2023, there were nearly 160,000 “In Absentia” removal orders issued nationwide, a nearly 155% increase from one year earlier, federal figures show. And the pace has increased even further, with nearly 43,000 more “In Absentia” removal orders issued in just the first quarter of 2024, federal data shows.

“Getting a removal order means that someone could be removed,” Bush-Joseph said. “But whether they will actually be removed is a different question.”

Arthur, a former immigration judge, said the majority of asylum-seekers have no intention of ever appearing in court.

“These people came to the United States, they got released and they never intended to show up for immigration court,” he said. “But they were given the documents to do so.”

Russell, however, said asylum-seekers are victimized by an outdated and underfunded court system in which venues change frequently and motions to appear in court often never make it to their mailbox.

And while the respondent is required to update the court if they change address, the process, he said, is complex and made even more difficult by the fact that many don't speak English and have limited education.

“It's a process that takes too long, is inefficient and is under-resourced,” Russell said. “So people get lost in the shuffle. They might move two, three times in Suffolk, or they might move out of state.”

With Macy Egeland

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.