Another new report from Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) Immigration project said that “the latest available court records through the end of March 2017 reveal little observable change in filings since President Trump assumed office.”
“In fact, the pace of DHS issuances of NTAs (notices to appear) that initiate proceedings in Immigration Court under the Trump Administration remain similar to the pace in earlier months under President Obama,” the report said. “Indeed, the monthly numbers of new NTAs under President Trump continues much the same as the levels that prevailed all through the second half of FY 2016.”
“However, because of filing and recording delays, any estimate of overall trends must be considered very preliminary in nature,” the report continued. “Indeed, just over half of the NTAs filed during the post-Trump period still reflect NTAs initiated under President Obama.”
According to the report, since Inauguration Day, DHS has initiated 25,942 cases to seek removal orders. It also noted that “NTAs dated after Trump assumed the presidency and that have already been filed and recorded by the court are referred to as ‘Trump’ cases.” In contrast, court-recorded NTAs dated during FY 2017 but before Trump assumed office are denoted as ‘Obama’ cases.”
TRAC explained that despite the fact that the “pace of filings remains unchanged,” it did note that “there has been a sharp change between Trump and Obama cases in whether individuals are detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while their cases are pending.” The report concluded that 54% of Obama’s cases “were not detained,” as opposed to only 25% of Trump’s cases.
The TRAC report also contained a very detailed table of where the DHS filings have occurred.
“The Houston Detained court had the largest number of Trump cases filed thus far, slightly more than even the New York City court which handles non-detained cases and historically has had the highest case filings in the country,” the report said.
You can read the entire report here.
