The Cost of Delays: How Backlogs in the U.S. Immigration System Harm Our Communities
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Today’s immigration application backlog exposes a system cracking under the weight of 30-plus years of outdated policies and procedures. The modern immigration system of the United States was built largely on the procedural and structural precedent established in 1965 through the Immigration and Nationality Act, or Hart-Cellar Act. This law created the foundation for the preference-based system of categories establishing employment-based and family-based priorities.
To this day, pathways to obtaining lawful status through the granting of permanent residency, or a “green card,” to applicants throughout the world are dictated by a complicated process of preference-based priorities, institutional bureaucracy, and policy fluctuations with the comings and goings of different presidential administrations.
Throughout the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the U.S. passed major reforms through policies such as the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act and the Immigration Act of 1990, which expanded the 1965 Hart-Cellar Act. Although changes occur periodically by way of modified caps on visas, executive orders, or policy memorandums, comprehensive immigration reform has not passed through Congress since 1990.
USCIS processing delays
Studies illustrate that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the main body responsible for processing applications for temporary and permanent lawful migratory status, has been struggling to manage application volumes and resolve backlogs. Since 2016, the USCIS case backlog has more than tripled, from 3.5 million to 11.6 million as of September 2025. Compiling factors from the COVID-19 pandemic, policy changes during President Trump’s first term, and an increase in new applications in 2021 have caused the rate of case completions to fall behind the rate of new submissions.
During the presidential transition in 2025, USCIS experienced a surge of applications as migrants of all backgrounds rushed to submit applications before the inauguration. Rapid changes in policy via executive order, such as the visa ban extended to an initial 19 (now 75) countries, caused an additional backlog of 2 million applications. Most major applications are now experiencing increased denial rates and historically high backlogs.
Understanding HR 1
In July 2025, the passing of the HR 1 reconciliation package known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act paved the way for “one of the most significant transformations of America’s immigration system” since the Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. By prioritizing enforcement over adjudication, recent federal immigration priorities are weakening legal immigration systems, increasing procedural barriers, and creating conditions that make migrants waiting on or eligible for pathways to lawful status more vulnerable to detention and removal.
“It is neither responsible nor compassionate to allow migrants to enter into circumstances of prolonged uncertainty, where their legal status is resolved and there are no systems in place to provide early transitional support. The lack of good policy creates unfair systems that potentially expose people to abuse and harm; this gap also limits the ability of both private citizens and the government to effectively help them. In the case of immigration, without fair and properly funded systems in place, vulnerable human beings can be economically or politically exploited.” |
Although the $240 billion in increased funding designated for the Department of Homeland Security through two reconciliation bills makes “the U.S. immigration enforcement agencies richer than many nations’ entire military force,” legal immigration pathways continue to be burdened by increased delays, rising costs, and administrative changes left largely unaddressed by the dramatically expanded budget. Allocations in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act make clear that current executive priorities on immigration are: border security, enforcement, detention, and removal.
Key budget allocations include:
$45 billion to build new migration detention facilities
$46.5 billion to build more walls and implement more barriers to unauthorized entry
$30 billion for ICE detention and deportation activities
$14 billion to reimburse state agencies supporting immigration enforcement activities
$12 billion for more CBP agents, transportation, and checkpoints
Dismantling of legal protections
As of 2026, more and more funding has been funneled to ramp up immigration enforcement priorities throughout the country, and legal protections have become less accessible. A combination of increased application fees, wait times, and the presence of enforcement officials at regular immigration milestones has created a chilling effect, and fewer people apply for immigration benefits they are eligible for. The efficiency of USCIS, a primarily fee-funded agency, continues to take a hit. As a result, delayed renewals, increased denials, and the dismantling of protections are causing lapses in lawful status, employment authorization, and protections from deportation.
These consequences paired with expanded enforcement capacities nationwide mean an increasing number of individuals are being pushed into a growing deportation pipeline. With the crippling of longstanding protections like those provided by Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), millions of beneficiaries who were previously granted renewable protections are left vulnerable to immigration enforcement. Most recently, a USCIS memo stated that the deferred action protections long associated with those granted DACA status no longer automatically prevent detention or deportation.
Regardless of current or pending protections, undocumented migrants in the country are being encouraged to self-deport. Most recently, a major policy shift for individuals eligible to adjust status from within the U.S. may now require many to complete the process from a consulate in their home country. This pathway to lawful status, or an “adjustment of status,” is now being reframed as an “extraordinary exception.” What previously allowed most applicant families and individuals to avoid separation, job and property loss, and three- to ten-year reentry bars may now only be available to applicants who can prove the need for exceptional relief.
With current policies enforcing visa bans on certain countries and prolonged application processing delays, this change is another example of restricting pathways to lawful status in the country.
Dismantling immigration courts
Although the One Big Beautiful Bill Act provides limited funding for immigration courts, it also creates a cap of 800 federal immigration judges. With the current 3.8 million cases and the anticipated increase in removal activities, this number will fall far short of the 1,300 judges some analysts believe would be needed to resolve the backlog. Since the beginning of President Trump’s second term in office, more than 100 immigration judges have retired, been fired, or been forced out of their positions in what some former judges see as an effort to overwhelm the system.
Lacking judges to process cases, fewer migrants receive timely access to justice as the backlog in immigration courts grows. As more people are detained and cut off from financial, emotional, and legal support while they wait for their day in court, the number of migrants abandoning their cases before reaching their scheduled court date is increasing. Meanwhile, the use of “mega master” hearings to decide on 100 or more cases in a single session is raising alarms about “generating deportation orders in bulk.” The hiring of new judges with less understanding of the complexities of immigration law and who are more prone to terminate applications without a hearing are also making it harder to access constitutional due process protections.
“The Constitution, notably the 5th and 14th Amendments, clearly states that every ‘person’ is entitled to due process and equal protection under the law, and the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that these rights extend to all persons as soon as they arrive on U.S. soil, regardless of citizenship or immigration status. Upholding due process and equal protection with vigor and exactness at the individual, institutional, and systemic levels is crucial to rooting out prejudice.” |
“The Constitution, notably the 5th and 14th Amendments, clearly states that every ‘person’ is entitled to due process and equal protection under the law, and the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that these rights extend to all persons as soon as they arrive on U.S. soil, regardless of citizenship or immigration status. Upholding due process and equal protection with vigor and exactness at the individual, institutional, and systemic levels is crucial to rooting out prejudice.”
Conclusion
Behind every processing delay, court backlog, or revoked protections is a family pleading for stability, a worker waiting to contribute positively to their local economy, or a loved one waiting for reunification.
As resources flow toward enforcement instead of reform, the promise of a fair and accessible immigration system grows more distant. While legal pathways remain burdened and restricted by delays, rising costs, overextended courts, and exclusive policies, both migrants and citizens alike share the consequences of family separation, economic disruption, and the erosion of constitutional protections.
This article was written by Nori Gomez, immigration program specialist for Mormon Women for Ethical Government.
