The number of Korean immigrants facing deportation hearings in U.S. immigration courts has significantly decreased recently, according to a report.
On October 22, Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) released data showing that the number of Korean deportation cases pending in U.S. immigration courts across the nation for the 2023-2024 fiscal year is currently 472. This represents a 22% drop from the 605 cases reported in the 2022-2023 fiscal year and a 45.5% decrease compared to 866 cases in the 2021-2022 fiscal year.
This marks the lowest level since TRAC began compiling and publishing data on immigration court deportation hearings in the 2011-2012 fiscal year.
Looking at the trend in deportation cases for Korean immigrants, there had been a steady decline until the 2015-2016 fiscal year (with 666 cases). However, the numbers began to rise again in the 2016-2017 fiscal year, reaching 672 cases and continuing to increase for five consecutive years. Notably, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of cases surged to 1,026 in the 2019-2020 fiscal year and 1,057 in the 2020-2021 fiscal year, before beginning to decrease again in recent years.
Meanwhile, the total number of pending deportation cases in U.S. immigration courts for the 2023-2024 fiscal year reached an all-time high of 3,716,106 cases. This marks a 33% increase from the 2,794,629 cases pending last year. The surge is largely attributed to the rise in asylum seekers crossing the southern border, with over 1.59 million of these individuals having formally submitted asylum applications.
BY EUNBYUL KIM, YOUNGNAM KIM [kim.youngnam@koreadaily.com]
