As the number of immigration-related cases filed in federal court last year hit the highest level in the past 30 years, some lawyers pointed to the chronic backlog of immigration documents as a sign that the current system’s limitations were being exposed.
According to federal court statistics, as of the end of last year, more than 70 percent of federal court cases were immigration and refugee cases.
Immigration-related cases jumped from 6,424 in 2020 to 13,487 in 2022, according to the Office of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Paul Crampton.
Currently, the Department of Immigration backlogs over 1 million immigration applications.
Immigration lawyers say the surge in cases filed in federal courts is a result of the Department of Immigration’s delays and denials in the immigration process.
According to Barbara Jackman, an immigration lawyer in Toronto, people are getting tired of the lengthy processing times for immigration applications of all types, including permanent residency.
“I think it’s partly due to the coronavirus,” he said.
“As many cases are being handled at once, rejection cases are increasing, and more lawsuits are being filed in response,” Jackman said.
Ottawa immigration attorney Jacqueline Bonistel suspects an increase in Mandamus applications, asking the Department of Immigration to expedite processing of immigration applications, is driving the surge in immigration-related cases in the courts.
‘Mandamus’ is a court ordering a government agency to carry out a specific task as an obligation under the law and is called a ‘duty execution order’ in Korean. The Mandamus application is submitted to the Department of Immigration to request processing results when the applicant is well past the reasonably expected processing timeline.
Bonisteel said these mandamus applications are an increasingly common last resort.
Currently, there are more than 2 million immigration applications (including backlogs) pending with the Federal Immigration Department.
Meanwhile, the Department of Immigration said it processed more than 5.2 million permanent and temporary resident and citizenship applications in 2022 alone, nearly doubling the previous year.