The Cost of Administrative Delays
The US immigration system is mired in delays. For instance, Thousands of immigrant youth who have already been found eligible for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status are currently stuck in a many-year backlog, leaving them in an insecure state of protracted limbo. It is common for detained people who have had their bond approved to remain incarcerated for additional days, weeks, or even months while their loved ones jump through the inconsistent and needlessly complex hoops to secure their release. As of August, there was a 1.3 million case backlog in immigration courts, meaning millions of people face undue, unprecedented delays for their fates to be decided.
Public systems are often laden with bureaucracy, but it cannot be overly stated just how cruel and life-altering the administrative delays in the US immigration system can be. It’s not just that people are waiting for high-stakes decisions; people are often waiting months and years, at great personal cost, merely to have a chance for their case to be heard or to move its way through administrative sludge.
A client whom we’ll call Miguel, for instance, has been in active deportation proceedings for nearly fifteen years. When he was thirteen years old, he made the terrible – and ultimately life-altering–decision to join a gang and take part in a robbery. “I regret that decision every day of my life,” he says. Miguel was sentenced to fifteen years in prison but only served four due to good behavior and for cooperating with law enforcement. He has not been arrested since.
He is now a husband, a father, a stepfather, and a business owner, but the threat of deportation has been hovering above him for his entire adult life. If he’s sent back to Mexico, he very credibly fears that gang members there will retaliate against him for cooperating with law enforcement. And, because all deportation is a form of family separation, if forced back to Mexico, Miguel would be severed from the family he has built here.
His court case has been delayed again and again, keeping Miguel in a state of limbo. He employs over a dozen people and has clients all throughout California. This is a feat of accomplishment under any circumstance, but even more so for Miguel: due to his pending removal proceedings, he must renew his work authorization each year, and thus, he can only get a driver’s license – something he needs for his job – after that approval takes place. Sometimes, there is a long lag, meaning that by the time he receives his authorization, he is only eligible for a few months of a driver’s license before starting the whole process again. He spends weeks each year in line, navigating the various bureaucratic systems–time not spent with his family, growing his business, or supporting his employees as a small business owner.
A few years ago, the processing delays were so severe that he went without a work permit for many months, forcing him to shutter his business. His family got evicted from their house and had to move in with family members. All that he had worked for had crumbled because of some paperwork delays resulting from a bad decision he’d made – and paid for with prison time – over twenty years ago when he was just a boy.
Recently, Miguel’s day in court finally came. He brought his family to testify on his behalf, all of them hoping that this would be the final round – that their nightmare of uncertainty would be over, “That we could finally know what the future holds,” his wife explained, “and move on in whatever direction we need to instead of just waiting and worrying.” They had to drive more than three hours to get to court, and the children missed a day of school.
Miguel had a chance to share his story before the judge, as well as the regret he felt over his childhood choices, his fears of returning to Mexico, and the impact his deportation would have on his family, especially his children.
“It would affect them physically, emotionally, psychologically–in every single way,” he said. His wife wouldn’t be able to pay for basic needs without his salary, and as for his children, “How do you explain it to them?” he said, breaking into tears. “That one day, I might just disappear?”
“Why do you think it’s appropriate to burden a child with the information about your deportation proceedings?” was what the government attorney asked in response.
The much fairer question is why the US government devotes so much time and resources to punishing immigrant families and terrorizing them with the threat of deportation and these lengthy, inhumane waits.
“They treat immigrants like animals,” Miguel’s wife, a US citizen, said of the immigration system. “It’s like they make us into zombies.” Whenever they think they're safe, the threats rear their heads again as if returning from the dead.
Due to court backlogs and a scheduling delay from the morning case, Miguel’s recent hearing had to be cut short. The case would proceed on another day, several months down the road; it might even need yet a third timeslot a few months after that. The entire family was brought to tears afterward. Despite the strength of his case and the soothing words of their ILD attorney, it felt like another long stretch of purgatory awaited them.
“We just want to move on with our lives,” Miguel said through tears. “We just want to make a life.”
Our team feels optimistic that Miguel’s removal order will be canceled due to the merits of his case. But, in the best-case scenario, that outcome is still months and months away. He is just one of the millions at the mercy of a system mired with delays.
As wonky as the issue may sound, administrative delays are profound matters of injustice that ILD and many of our partner organizations fight on the systemic level. For they aren’t just incidental accidents of the US immigration system. In fact, these delays are highly functional. They serve as a form of terror through bureaucracy, stranding millions in a state of precarity and uncertainty.
