June 5th, 2025
Issue Brief by Daniel Di Martino
Only Judges Can Close the Border
One of the main campaign promises of the new Trump administration was to secure the border and carry out mass deportations, especially of criminals and recent illegal immigrants. But unfortunately, for many political leaders, increased enforcement is exclusively a matter of adding more border patrol agents or building physical barriers on the southern border. These measures ignore the Achilles’ heel of border enforcement: the immigration court system, which is badly underfunded and which allows illegal immigrants to stay indefinitely, despite clear laws mandating their removal. Unless this problem is resolved, illegal immigrants will continue to flood the border over the long run, because they will know that they can live and work in the U.S. for up to a decade before facing a judge. Every delayed immigration court hearing is an invitation for more illegal immigration.
Typically, an illegal immigrant can be deported only after an immigration judge issues a deportation order. If there are no judges to issue deportation orders, illegal immigrants remain in the country indefinitely as they wait for their cases to be heard. For decades, immigration courts have been underfunded, which—combined with record-setting illegal immigration during the Biden administration—has led to a backlog of 4 million cases. Even if illegal immigration falls to pre-pandemic levels now that Trump is in office, as long as the current number of immigration judges remains stable, it will take a decade to clear the backlog.
Illegal immigrants know about this backlog and that it presents an opportunity to enter the U.S., work illegally for years, and then, worst case, go back home on the taxpayers’ dime years later. Worse, criminal illegal immigrants—including gang members, drug traffickers, and repeat offenders—roam free in U.S. communities for years before facing deportation. Expanding immigration courts means getting dangerous criminals out of the country faster.
https://manhattan.institute/article/only-judges-can-close-the-border
