The number of migrants who have been ordered to leave the country surged to new highs last year, and more than 150,000 of them awaiting asylum court hearings failed to appear before immigration judges. 

If migrants fail to appear for their hearing, immigration judges — who have been overwhelmed with cases in recent years — then the jurist can issue what is known as an “in absentia removal order,” which is supposed to lead to the migrant’s deportation. 

The number of in absentia removal orders skyrocketed last year, up more than 150 percent compared to 2022. In total, more than 159,000 in absentia removal orders were issued in 2023, while fewer than 63,000 were handed down in 2022. The previous high of just over 91,000 was reached in 2019. 

Once an in absentia removal order is issued, there is no appeal a migrant or their attorney can make, though they can file a motion to have the in absentia order rescinded. 

Immigration judges are facing a daunting backlog of cases, especially since crossings have surged in recent years. According to numbers from the Justice Department’s executive office for immigration review, there were nearly 1.2 million migrants set to have their cases heard by immigration judges in 2023 — up from around 707,000 just one year ago. 

But judges were able to adjudicate less than half of those cases. Less than 524,000 migrants of the 1.2 million had judges rule on their asylum or refugee status last year. 

A resident at the conservative Center for Immigration Studies, Andrew Arthur, says that the Biden administration is willfully facilitating these “no shows” at immigration court by failing to provide migrants with notices to appear — thus hampering the court system by making it harder for migrants to be notified about their court dates and putting the onus on deportation authorities to find the migrants who, in many cases, have been in America for years. 

NBC reported on February 3 that nearly 600,000 migrants were not given these notices to appear or court dates when they entered the country last year. Even if migrants do receive a court date, it may not take place until the 2030’s.