New spending bill would slash funding for heavily backlogged immigration courts

A consolidated bill released on Sunday to fund part of the government for this fiscal year would cut millions of dollars from the heavily backlogged body that runs immigration courts.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024 — an omnibus package of six appropriations bills to fund the government until Sept. 30 — was released by Republican Rep. Kay Granger of Texas, the chair of the House Appropriations Committee, as part of a compromise deal with the Senate to complete the long-delayed process to permanently fund the government for fiscal year 2024. In the bill, funding for the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) — the Department of Justice agency that runs immigration courts — has been cut by $16 million over its levels for fiscal year 2023.

The bill allocates $844 million to EOIR for the remainder of the fiscal year, whereas $860 million was allocated in 2023. EOIR, which hears cases involving deportation proceedings against foreign nationals unlawfully present in the country, currently has a backlog of over two million cases, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Over 6.5 million illegal migrants have been encountered at the southern border since fiscal year 2021, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024 by Daily Caller News Foundation on Scribd

Each EOIR judge has to adjudicate over 4,000 cases, on average, according to an analysis by Syracuse University.

The EOIR has received attention from Congress amid concerns about illegal immigration to the United States over its southern border with Mexico.

A recent bipartisan border security proposal in the Senate, which failed to pass amid Republican opposition to its broader provisions, would have allocated an extra $440 million, above regular appropriations, to hire more immigration judges and increase the capacity of courts to process removal cases.

Another proposal by the House of Representatives, known as H.R. 2 or the “Secure the Border Act,” did not expressly include any additional funding for EOIR, according to the text of the bill.

The bill, known as a “minibus” spending package, is the result of months of negotiations between the Democratic-led Senate and the Republican-led House to agree on funding the federal government. Previous disagreements between the bodies, as well as within them, have led to the passage of four continuing resolutions since Sept. 30, 2023, to avert government shutdowns.

The House Appropriations Committee and Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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