Overview

• DHS lawyers filed mass motions to reopen administratively closed cases dating back up to 20 years.
• Some notices targeted individuals who had died or received visas in the interim without any government review.
• The department is leveraging an old backlog-management tool from the 1970s to meet deportation quotas.
• Immigration judges report that the surge of reopening motions is exacerbating a backlog of roughly four million cases.
• Attorneys warn that bypassing fundamental checks undermines due process and legal protections.