Immigration Court Statistics, Fiscal Years 2018–2023: Cases Referred via Notice to Appear

• NCJ Number: 311393
• Author(s): Ryan Kling, BJS Statistician
• Date Published: September 2026
• Publication Type: Publication

Description

This report summarizes immigration court data, describes the process of the immigration enforcement system, and presents key statistics on immigration court outcomes. The report focuses on cases referred to immigration courts via a Notice to Appear (NTA). An NTA is the primary way an individual is informed to appear in an immigration court and is used in the most common cases that immigration courts adjudicate. Through its Federal Justice Statistics Program, BJS acquired data pertaining to civil immigration court proceedings from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).

Highlights

• From fiscal year (FY) 2008 to FY 2023, the number of NTA cases pending at fiscal yearend increased 1,222% (186,104 to 2,459,798).
• NTA initial case receipts increased 287% and completions increased 175% from FY 2018 to FY 2023.
• In FY 2023, more NTA initial case completions ended in removal or voluntary departure (48%) than relief (9%), and 42% of cases were terminated without a finding.
• From FY 2018 to FY 2023, the number of cases per judge actively concluding cases increased 130% for case receipts, 74% for cases completed, and 99% for pending cases.