Asylum case backlog soars amid immigration surge, pandemic setbacks

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX) — Federal immigration court judges are overwhelmed by the number of cases coming to their courtrooms.

KFOX spoke with Alexis Lucero, an immigration defense attorney, who said the pandemic, the change in administration and the constant influx of migrants seeking asylum has caused this overflow.

"The immigration court system during the pandemic and during the Title 42 era was largely paralyzed," Lucero said. "A lot of the cases that they had already processed, that they had already been scheduled for were completely canceled for almost a period of two years."