Immigration Court Legal Representation Dashboard
As policy changes and global events constantly shift the immigration landscape, this tool—updated monthly—provides the most recent statistics on cases heard before the U.S. immigration courts and the state of legal representation among people facing deportation.
The U.S. immigration court system, run by the Executive Office of Immigration Review of the U.S. Department of Justice, has a mission to “adjudicate immigration cases by fairly, expeditiously, and uniformly interpreting and administering” the laws.1 However, the U.S. immigration system is outdated, and systemic failures have led to a large backlog of cases waiting to be adjudicated. As of , there was a backlog of deportation cases pending in immigration court in the United States. This number changed by since the year prior.
The consequences of losing a deportation case can be devastating. Deportation can tear families and communities apart, and many people are sent back to places where their safety or livelihoods may be at risk. However, while the federal government provides lawyers for people who cannot afford one in criminal court, it does not do the same for people in immigration court. People deserve to be treated with fairness and due process, but right now, many people facing deportation are forced to navigate the complex U.S. immigration system alone against highly trained government lawyers, without anyone to explain their rights or to defend them. Across the country, 69% of people facing deportation in immigration court across the United States lack legal counsel. For people in immigration detention facing deportation, securing legal representation can be even more challenging.
The table below includes national- and
state-level
data on people in deportation proceedings and the number and percentage who are
unrepresented. States with at least one immigration court are included in the table. The data is
available
for all people facing deportation, as well as for only people in immigration detention. The last column
of
the table allows the user to see how these counts have changed over the past month or year.
1 Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR), “About the Office,” https://www.justice.gov/eoir/about-office.
- Month and year: The data will be updated to the selected end date.
- What you want to measure:
- Pending cases: This counts cases that have not received an initial case decision (or “immigration judge disposition”) as of the selected month and year.
- Cases in the past five years: This counts all cases—both pending and closed—that have started in the past five years prior to selected month and year.
- All cases since FY2001: This counts all cases for which data is available from Fiscal Year 2001 to selected month and year.
- What you want to measure change over time in: In the last column, choose one of the previous columns in which to measure change over time.
- The time period over which you want to measure change:
- Last month: the month preceding the selected date to the selected date.
- Last year: the year preceding the selected date to the selected date.
See About the Data for more details on the dataset. For more information on the landscape of deportation defense and local and state deportation defense programs visit The Movement for Deportation Defense: Information Hub. For any questions or comments on this dashboard please contact nagarwal@vera.org
Number and Share of People Facing Deportation and the Status of Legal Representation
About the Data
- There are no immigration courts in the following U.S. states and territories in this dataset: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Canada, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mexico, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Virgin Islands, Washington D.C., West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
- The counts in this table are of immigration proceedings. An immigration proceeding is considered to be “Unrepresented” if the data shows there is no E-28 form, the Notice of Entry of Appearance as Attorney or Representative, filing associated with the case. An immigration proceeding is considered to be “Detained” if the individual was in immigration detention at the time of the immigration judge’s initial disposition or remains in immigration detention if the case is still pending. The U.S. state associated with an immigration proceeding is determined by the location of the immigration court where the immigration judge’s initial disposition was issued, or the location of the most recent hearing if the case is still pending.
- “Pending Cases” refers to immigration proceedings without an initial disposition by an immigration judge. “Cases Filed in Past 5 Years” refers to immigration proceedings with a Notice to Appear (NTA) filing date within the five years preceding the month and year of the selected dataset. “All Cases Since FY2001” refers to proceedings with a NTA filing date after September 30, 2000.
- When calculating change over time for “All Cases Total”, “Detained Cases Total”, “All Cases Unrepresented”, and “Detained Cases Unrepresented”, the percentage change is given. When calculating change over time for “All Cases % Unrepresented” and “Detained Cases % Unrepresented”, the change in percentage points is given. For example, suppose there were 10,000 total proceedings (“All Cases Total”) with 50% unrepresented (“All Cases % Unrepresented”) in January, and 11,000 total proceedings with 55% unrepresented in February. The "% Change Over Last Month" in total proceedings is (11,000 – 10,000) / 10,000 = 0.10 = +10%. The "Change Over Last Month" in percentage unrepresented is 55% - 50% = 5% = +5 pp.
- When comparing states based on percentage changes over time, note that small changes in the number of proceedings can cause large percent changes. It is therefore very important to consider the volume and changes in the volume of the number of cases in an area, when contextualizing representation rates. For example, a monthly increase from one proceeding to two proceedings, representing an increase of +100%, might not be as noteworthy as an increase from 20,000 to 30,000 proceedings, representing an increase of +50%.
Data source: Executive Office for Immigration Review, "EOIR Case Data (December 2023)," database (Falls Church, VA: Executive Office for Immigration Review), https://www.justice.gov/eoir/foia-library-0.