Skipping Court
U.S. Immigration Courts & Aliens Who Disappear Before Trial
Key Takeaways
43 percent of all aliens free pending trial failed to appear for court in 2017.
Since 1996, 37 percent of all aliens free before trial disappeared from court.
Aliens abscond from court more often today than they did before 9/11.
Deportation orders for failing to appear in court exceed deportation orders from cases that were tried by 306 percent.
46 percent of all unaccompanied children disappeared from U.S. immigration courts from 2013 through 2017.
49 percent of unaccompanied children failed to appear in U.S. immigration courts in 2017.
Failures to Appear in Court
American immigration courts consistently have the highest failure to appear (FTA) rates of any state or federal courts in the country.2 From 1996 through 2017, 37 percent of all aliens free pending trial disappeared. From the 2,680,598 foreign nationals that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released on their own recognizance, 1,320,000, received deportation orders, 75 percent of them (993,593) for failure to appear. Only 25 percent of this group — some 324,402 people altogether — actually tried their cases.3 This dynamic, first reported at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on June 17, 2010, eventually prompted heated denial by the Obama Justice Department4 but it is not solely a problem of Democrat administrations. Administrations of both parties have failed to effectively address it.
https://cis.org/Report/Immigration-Courts-Aliens-Disappear-Trial