The backlog of court cases addressing the status of illegal immigrant’s has reached over one million, prompting Justice and immigration courts to step up efforts to hire more judges, digitize old paper systems and speed up court proceedings.

James McHenry, the director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which handles immigration cases, said Tuesday that the backlog of active cases is over 692,000 and that the courts have an additional 330,000 cases that have been put into “administrative closure,” but that are still before the courts.



EOIR director notes that immigration court backlog has grown because immigration judges have been completing fewer & fewer cases. #immigrationnewsmaker — Mark Krikorian (@MarkSKrikorian) May 1, 2018



“It would be in addition to those (690,000) cases,” he said at a newsmaker event hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies. “There is the possibility of additional cases,” he added.

Even with hiring new judges, the backlog will take years to clear, he added.

[Opinion: Stop celebrating illegal immigrants and arrest them already]



EOIR Director talks about the need to change from paper to electronic files and hire more immigration judges to deal with backlog https://t.co/6cBUyfWzLO #immigrationnewsmakers pic.twitter.com/vr7pTWDIq8 — Kausha Luna (@kaushaluna) May 1, 2018



The office has 334 judges around the nation and Congress has authorized a total corps of 484. President Trump has sought a total of 700.

McHenry, named the director by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has moved to hire judges and streamline the process of handling with the backlog. It’s an uphill fight, he revealed, since it can take up to a year to hire a judge and because the court system still uses paper. He has speeded the hiring some and has announced a pilot program to begin shifting from paper to digital files.

The backlog of cases jumped under former President Obama as did the backlog of deportations, which is 684,583.