One in six cases submitted to Immigration courts is rejected because the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has not presented the corresponding citation, according to a study by Syracuse University that determined that the greatest failures are presented in Miami.
This summons, known as a Notice to Appear or NTA for its acronym in English, is the official document that initiates the process of deportation of a foreigner and requires that the migrant appear before an immigration court on a certain date.
The TRAC team at Syracuse University, New York, analyzed case-by-case immigration court records and found that one in six new cases is dismissed because of that omission.
As of last June, there were some courts “where the majority of all completed cases are dismissals for failure to file a ‘notice to appear,'” TRAC said.
In terms of numbers of these cases closed due to lack of notification, the list is headed by the office located in Miami with a total of 7,700 cases rejected out of a total of 9,942 concluded in fiscal period 2022.
This means that 81% of the cases that came to that court were dismissed for lack of notice to appear.
Other sites where, according to TRAC, this omission resulted in a negative conclusion of the procedure were Houston, with 54%; and Chicago with 26%.
“10 years ago this omission in the NTA filing was rare,” noted TRAC. “The frequency increased once Border Patrol agents were allowed to use the immigration court’s interactive dating system.”
With that system, agents can directly set the date of the initial hearing in immigration court and “supposedly, the actual NTA is generated at the same time and a copy is given to the asylum seeker or other foreigners indicating the place, the time and date they are to appear in court.
The fact that this does not occur “suggests that there is a serious disconnect” between the CBP agents who enter new cases and set up hearings and the staff of that federal agency responsible for presenting a copy to the court.
“This ruling excessively wastes the court’s time,” the report added. “And it also causes problems for the immigrant (and possibly their attorney) if they show up at the hearing and the Immigration Judge dismisses their case because it was not formally filed with the court.”