'This was no accident': Hundreds of thousands of immigrant deportation cases dismissed due to failure to file paperwork

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has failed to file thousands of notices to appear (NTAs), leading to immigration judges dismissing thousands of deportation cases under Joe Biden’s administration.

A new report from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) released on March 20 says that “without proper filing, the Court lacks jurisdiction to hear the case and the immigrants, often asylum seekers, lack a way to move their case forward.”

According to the New York Post, immigrants are issued NTAs when they are apprehended upon crossing the border illegally into the United States. A hearing date that is often years in advance is assigned to those claiming asylum to give them an opportunity to go before an immigration judge to explain why they should not be deported.

All NTAs must also be filed with the court assigned to the immigrant.

“These large numbers of dismissals and what then happens raises serious concerns,” the TRAC report says. The report goes on to say that there has been “almost a total lack of transparency on where and why these DHS failures occurred.”

The Syracuse University based, nonpartisan report also says that “equally troubling is the lack of solid information on what happened to these many immigrants when DHS never rectified its failure by reissuing and filing new NTAs to restart their court cases.”

Adding to concern, the TRAC report notes, “almost all Immigration Court cases are removal cases for which DHS must file and NTA for the case to go forward.”

This should be of no surprise given the Biden administration’s handling of our borders in general. However, it should be cause for concern.

In 2020 there were 6,482 case dismissals due to NTAs not being filed with the court. 2021 saw a massive leap in case dismissals with a total of 33,802. 2022 saw another jump to 79,592 case dismissals for the same reason. And finally, 2023 saw a small decrease to 68,869 cases dismissed due to no NTAs filed.

As of the end of February 2024, there have been 10,598 deportation cases that have been dismissed due to no NTAs, according to the TRAC report.

For reference, less than one percent of deportation cases were dismissed between 2014 and 2020. That number jumped to 8.4% in the first three years of Biden’s administration.

DHS has been found to only rectify about one in four dismissals for cases where NTAs were issued to immigrants, but not filed with the courts. TRAC reports that in around 2,000 cases the NTA was filed late with the immigration courts.

Miami, Florida and Houston, Texas are reportedly at the top of the list of case dismissals with more than half of their deportation cases being dismissed since 2021 due to no NTAs filed with the immigration courts.

“With Immigration Judges staring down 3.5 million pending immigration cases, every wasted hearing is a hearing that could have moved another case forward or resolved it,” the TRAC report stated.

With the invasion happening on our borders, and even via the air due to Biden flying illegals into the country, it is no surprise that our Immigration Courts are overwhelmed. There is no excuse for the incompetence of Biden and his administration on securing our borders and there is no doubt that this incompetence has led to the issues at hand.

While these cases are being dismissed, illegals in our country are busy committing violent crimes and causing chaos. This is not acceptable.