On March 3, 2016, Partner Jennifer Casey appeared on Colorado Public Radio’s “Colorado Matters” program to discuss the lengthy backlogs at the U.S. Immigration Courts in Colorado. Currently, the Immigration Courts in Colorado have the longest delays in the country, with the average case processing time of 933 days. Listen to Jennifer’s insights on these issues here: http://www.cpr.org/news/story/denver-s-immigration-court-has-longest-hearing-delays-us  

Over the past two years, due to a major shift in priorities by the Department of Homeland Security, as well as a very understaffed court, the Denver Immigration Court put thousands of cases on hold and set hearings out to a “place holder” date of November 29, 2019. In recent weeks, the Colorado Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association has been informed by the Court that it will begin resetting...

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) recently reported that the backlog for the immigration courts grew to an astounding 445,607 as of April 30, 2015, nationwide. The backlog appears to be the result of a changed focus for the courts to hearing cases involving recent arrivals and unaccompanied minors. Representing 15.7% of the docket, unaccompanied minors cases appear to be moving quickly as there were just over 700 fewer cases at...

In July of 2014, as a response to the so-called “surge” of foreign nationals arriving at the southern border, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a directive instructing all U.S. Immigration Courts to prioritize the following removal cases: 1) recently arrived unaccompanied children 2) recently arrived families with children released on an Alternative to Detention program; 3) detained families with children; 4) other detained foreign nationals in removal proceedings. For...