Nearly 200,000 migrant deportation cases are THROWN OUT because Biden administration failed to file paperwork before court hearings

Around 200,000 migrant deportation cases have been thrown out under President Biden because the administration failed to file paperwork before court hearings, according to a new report. 

An analysis by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse found the Department of Homeland Security failed to file the required Notice to Appear before court dates in 200,000 cases, leading to them being thrown out. 

The failure left courts without the jurisdiction to handle deportation cases and rule on asylum claims and left migrants in 'limbo' and unable to work. 

The report says it is 'troubling' as there is an 'almost total lack of transparency on where and why these DHS failures occurred', it adds: 'These large numbers of dismissals and what then happens raise serious concerns.'

It also poses a problem for the migrants. The report says it can 'potentially extend the time and difficulties that individuals, and their families, face in securing food, shelter and other essentials.'

The number of times an NTA wasn't filed, leading to a case being thrown out, jumped when Biden came to office, according to the new report

200,000 deportation cases have been thrown out after the Department of Homeland Security failed to file paperwork, according to a new report

When they cross the US border, migrants are assigned a hearing date to explain to an immigration judge why they should not be deported. 

The hearing is often set years in advance. 

They are issued with a Notice to Appear (NTA) when they enter, but the document also has to be filed with the court by the Department of Homeland Security. 

Failure to do so means the hearing can't proceed and a decision can't be made. 

The number of times an NTA wasn't filed, leading to a case being thrown out, jumped when Biden came to office, according to the new report. 

Their analysis found 6,482 cases were dismissed after an NTA wasn't filed on time in 2020 compared to 33,802 in 2021.

The numbers then jumped again to 79,592 in 2022 before falling to 68,869 in 2023.

The numbers are much higher as a percentage of total cases under Biden too. 

Between 2014 and 2020, less than 1 percent of deportation cases were dismissed as a result of NTAs not being filed with courts, whereas in Biden’s first three years in office, it was 8.4 percent of cases.

A case being thrown out can be very damaging to a migrant. Without a formal asylum petition, asylum seekers cannot usually obtain work permits.

The report said: 'These dismissals therefore potentially extend the time and difficulties that individuals, and their families, face in securing food, shelter and other essentials while waiting for a work permit. 

Having a case thrown out leaves migrants in limbo and often unable to work 

Two migrants struggle to cross the Rio Grande River on the Mexico-US border as Texas National Guards take security measures in Eagle Pass, Texas

Migrants and their children camp out on the banks if the Rio Grande, the river that separates the US and Mexico

'Indeed, the lack of clarity about their case may only add to their sense of legal limbo rather than alleviate it.'

The report said: 'Equally troubling is the lack of solid information on what happened to these many immigrants when DHS never rectified its failure by reissuing and filing new NTAs to restart their Court cases.'

They found the mistake was only rectified for one in four migrants where NTAs were not filed with immigration courts.

One possible explanation for the jump is Border Patrol agents and other personnel being given authority to schedule immigration hearings on their own.

The report said: 'Ten years ago, DHS’s failure to file an NTA before the scheduled first hearing was rare.

'However, the frequency increased once Border Patrol and other DHS personnel were given access to the Immigration Court’s Interactive Scheduling System (ISS).'

They added: 'DHS’s relatively recent access to the Court’s scheduling system created a new administrative problem: DHS employees could schedule Immigration Court hearings sooner than the agency could file the NTA, and this could have negative consequences for both the Immigration Court and the immigrant respondents themselves.

'With Immigration Judges staring down 3.5 million pending immigration cases, every wasted hearing is a hearing that could have moved another case forward or resolved it.'