San Diego immigration detention officials have been quietly transferring dozens of detainees out of state, cutting some off from their attorneys and likely delaying their efforts to win asylum in the U.S.
Some of the people transferred had their final trials coming up in just weeks, but now Immigration and Customs Enforcement is asking judges in San Diego to move those cases to the states where the detainees are now being held — a request that will likely cause lengthy delays in their cases and worsen the enormous immigration court backlog that the Biden administration cited last week as part of its justification to shut down most asylum processing at the southern border. Asylum cases can often drag on for years.
