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The numbers are astonishing – over 1 million active immigration cases currently on the docket across the U.S. According to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), the number may even be closer to 1.3 million. This is up from less than 500,000 cases in 2015.

The enormous backlog is the result of several factors: increased enforcement, not enough immigration judges, and several policy changes such as those that prioritize family cases and make it more difficult for judges to grant asylum. Other policies that restrict immigration judges’ abilities to prioritize and terminate certain cases have added to the backlog.

Lives in Limbo

What does this mean for immigrants who are caught in the system, awaiting their hearing date? It means a life in limbo full of uncertainty, anxiety, confusion, and despair.

Immigration attorney Gail Seeram was recently interviewed about the issue for Spectrum News 13:

“Immigrants are being given hearing dates 3 to 6 years in the future. That is just for the initial hearing. The case date could be another 3 to 6 years after that. In some cases, applicants are waiting 12 years to find out if they will be allowed to remain in the United States. In the meantime, they have no Driver’s License, no work permit, no way to legally earn a living and support themselves or their families. The immigration court system is beyond broken and adding more cases to the docket only demonstrates just how broken it is.”

Florida has one of the highest number of cases contributing to the backlog with 26,000 cases on the docket just in Orlando.

Immigration Help is Available

Whether you have had your initial hearing already or not, Florida immigration attorney Gail Seeram can help you. Our law firm is dedicated 100% to immigration law. We help families and individuals with deportation defense, immigration court representation, asylum claims, and more. We help legal immigrants, as well as undocumented immigrants navigate the U.S. immigration court system to help them gain legal entry to the U.S.

If you need immigration advice or representation, contact the Immigration Law Offices of Gail Seeram for help at Gail@GailLaw.com, start a chat session at https://myorlandoimmigrationlawyer.com, or call/whatsapp/text 407-292-7730. We offer free consultations and promise one-on-one attention from immigration attorney Gail Seeram herself.