Does the U.S. immigration court have a 4-year backlog of more than 3M cases?

['Reginald David', 'More Reginald David', 'Ct Mirror', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width'] CT Mirror 2025-09-19 00:00:00

The U.S. immigration court system does have a backlog of nearly 3.8 million cases as of the third quarter of 2025. Asylum cases take much longer, however, with the National Immigration Forum reporting in early 2024 an estimated wait time of 4.3 years. There are nearly 2.4 million asylum seekers’ cases pending as of the third quarter of 2025. The backlog is driven by the high number of applications, especially from people seeking protection from persecution, a shortage of immigration judges and support staff, and frequent policy changes that complicate proceedings. CT Mirror partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims.