Immigration Court Backlog

Causes and Solutions

By Mark Krikorian, Andrew R. Arthur, Lawrence O. Burman, Hans von Spakovsky, and Bryan Griffith on August 24, 2017

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Date: August 22, 2017, at 9:30am

Location: National Press Club, 529 14th St, NW, 13th Floor, Washington, D.C.

Nine new immigration judges were appointed in an effort to address the 600,000-plus backlog of cases in the nation's immigration courts. The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) hosted a panel discussion on Tuesday, August 22, on this issue, focusing on a recently published CIS analysis on the management of the immigration court system.

Former immigration judge Andrew Arthur, now a CIS fellow, discussed his paper, “The Massive Increase in the Immigration Court Backlog, Its Causes, and Solutions”. The key finding is that the doubling of the backlog from 2006 to 2015 was not due to an increase in the number of cases but a doubling in the length of time it takes each case to be resolved. Arthur proposes a variety of changes to address this problem.

Also on the panel was Larry Burman, representing the National Association of Immigration Judges, and Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former Justice Department official.


Introduction by Mark Krikorian

Executive Director, Center for Immigration Studies


Statement by Andrew Arthur


Resident Fellow in Law and Policy, Center for Immigration Studies. Arthur served for eight years as an immigration judge in York, Pa. After leaving the bench, he worked as staff director of the National Security Subcommittee at the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Statement by Larry Burman


Secretary-Treasurer, National Association of Immigration Judges. Burman has served as an immigration judge since 1998 and is chair of the Federal Bar Association's Immigration Law Section.

Statement by Hans von Spakovsky


Senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation's Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.

Question and Answer Session