Data: TRAC; Chart: Axios Visuals
The Biden administration now has nearly 17,000 migrants assigned to special courts dedicated to processing families seeking asylum quicker.
Why it matters: New data from Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) gives another sign of just how many migrants - including families - have been crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to claim political asylum.
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Nearly 12,000 migrants were added to the docket in August, according to TRAC.
Two-thirds of the more than 16,700 cases have been assigned to just six judges, portending new backlogs in a process designed to circumvent them.
One Boston immigration judge was assigned 129 cases in one day.
What they're saying: Multiple advocacy groups have condemned the administration's return to so-called "rocket dockets" for migrant families. There's concern the cases are decided too quickly - not giving migrants a fair shot.
Such a fast-track court process is just another way the administration is scrambling to more quickly move migrants through the immigration process.
"Although the Biden administration is understandably trying to find creative ways to address asylum-seeking families, the new 'Dedicated Docket' may do more to simply shuffle cases around and disrupt immigration judge's schedules rather than allowing the court to process asylum cases in a fair and efficient manner," Austin Kocher, a TRAC assistant research professor, told Axios.
