Finding solutions to the soaring backlog of immigration cases

Migrants wave as a bus leaves to take them to a refugee center outside Union Station on August 31. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times file)

There was a time when immigration lawyers would hold news conferences to bring attention to the fact that the backlog of immigration court cases was in the hundreds of thousands, with up to 600,000 pending cases.

Now, according to data compiled by Syracuse University’s TRAC program, unresolved cases stand at nearly 2 million, with 750,000 of them being applications for asylum. Making the backlog even more daunting: There are only about 600 immigration judges throughout the country to oversee and resolve those cases.