U.S. to expedite border family immigration cases

Families arriving at the U.S. border with Mexico will have their cases fast-tracked in immigration court, the Biden administration said Friday, less than two weeks after it said it was easing pandemic-related restrictions on seeking asylum.

Under the plan, families stopped on the border starting Friday could be placed in expedited proceedings aimed at determining whether they can remain in the U.S. Immigration judges would generally decide these cases within 300 days of an initial hearing in 10 cities including New York, Los Angeles and border communities such as El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security said.

The Trump and Obama administrations previously created dockets aimed at quickly deciding these cases in the immigration courts, which are notoriously backlogged and can take years to resolve cases.

The latest iteration, which the administration is calling a “dedicated docket,” lets judges grant continuances “for good cause,” according to instructions they received. It calls the 300-day timeline “an internal goal.”

The announcement comes as President Joe Biden is under mounting pressure to lift pandemic-related restrictions on seeking asylum at the border that were put in place by the Trump administration in March 2020.

Under the rules, citizens of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are typically expelled to Mexico within two hours without any opportunity to seek asylum or other humanitarian protections.

Immigrant advocates said creating dockets to speed asylum seekers through the courts isn’t fair and in the past has created delays for other migrants already waiting years for their cases to be heard.