A new rule taking effect July 28 will allow the government to send asylum seekers directly to immigration court without a prior intake interview, a change the Department of Homeland Security says is designed to reduce a backlog of roughly 1.4 million pending cases. The measure could affect up to 444,724 people, representing nearly a third of all pending asylum proceedings.
The policy shift arrives as the second Trump administration recorded its highest number of immigration arrests in June, with more than 100,000 cases closed in a single month. Absentia removal orders constituted more than two-thirds of all decisions issued by immigration judges in June, while fewer than 2% of completed cases resulted in any form of relief for the immigrant. In Chicago, deportation orders surged 120% between March and June.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to deport one million people across 2026 and 2027 and detain at least 99,000 on any given day. Meanwhile, more than 100 immigration judges have been fired or forced out over the past year.