New fast-track docket for migrants faces familiar challenges

By CLAUDIA TORRENS, PHILIP MARCELO and ELLIOT SPAGAT
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly six months ago, U.S. immigration courts established a fast-track docket for families who recently crossed the border. They go to the front of the line with the idea that others will be less likely to migrate knowing a backlog of more than 1.4 million cases will no longer buy them at least a few years in the United States. While it’s still early, the effort faces some of the same challenges as similar programs under Biden’s two predecessors. As of mid-September, the Biden effort was handling nearly 16,000 cases, and just over 100 had been decided by an immigration judge. Roughly 35 immigration judges are assigned to the docket in New York, Boston, San Francisco and elsewhere.