President Joe Biden increased the number of immigration judges in the U.S., but he did not double it as promised. 

There are a record 3.7 million pending immigration court cases in the U.S. That number has grown throughout Biden's presidency even as his administration has hired more judges and completed more cases.

There were 517 immigration judges in the Executive Office for Immigration Review in 2020 before Biden took office. There were 735 in 2024, an increase of 42%, the Justice Department reported. 

The administration hired 338 new immigration judges in the past four years, which is about the same as the 336 immigration judges hired in the four years before Biden took office. 

The immigration review office completed 66% more cases in fiscal year 2023 than in 2022, according to its 2025 budget request, but the number of pending cases kept growing.

The Justice Department requested $981 million to fund the Executive Office for Immigration Review in fiscal year 2025. That includes an "Adjudication Optimization Initiative," which would go partly toward hiring 25 new immigration judges and 125 support staff to address the pending caseload. The office has been funded at 2023 levels with continuing resolutions in the past two years, and it's unclear whether Congress will appropriate the requested funding. 

Biden increased the number of judges hearing immigration cases substantially, consistent with his promise. But he did not double the number as pledged. We rate this Compromise.

There are more than 2 million pending cases in immigration court in the United States, and cases take about two years to be completed. President Joe Biden as a candidate promised to double the number of immigration judges to help speed those cases. 

The administration has increased the number of immigration judges, but has not doubled it.

In 2020 before Biden became president, there were about 517 immigration judges, since then, that number has increased 23%, to 634.

For fiscal year 2023, the Justice Department requested $1.4 billion to cover costs associated with the Executive Office of Immigration Review, including the hiring of 100 additional immigration judges. Congress appropriated only $860 million for the office and it's unclear how the department will allocate those funds.

Biden hasn't fulfilled his promise to double the number of immigration judges, but the number so far has increased. We continue to rate this promise In the Works.

Amid concerns about backlogs in adjudicating immigration claims, Joe Biden promised during the 2020 presidential race to double the number of immigration judges and staff.

Biden has increased the number, but he hasn't doubled it.

At the time Biden took office in January 2021, there were roughly 500 immigration judges, said Mimi Tsankov, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges. (Tsankov was speaking in her own capacity as president of the group, not as a federal immigration judge based in New York City.)

In the subsequent year, 74 new immigration judges have been seated, she said. That's an increase of about 15%, not double.

In fact, Biden didn't even seek a doubling in his initial proposed budget, said Theresa Cardinal Brown, managing director of immigration and cross-border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Instead, his budget proposal asked for up to 100 new immigration judges.

Staff counts are not publicly available, but Tsankov said that, anecdotally, "immigration courts continue to be understaffed." Increases in staff that have already been funded by Congress are not yet operational, she said. This means that "files may not be complete, and when calling the court, people may have difficulty accessing a staff member in a timely manner."

If Biden has fallen short on the numerics of his promise, however, Tsankov said that other moves by the administration have been helpful in improving immigration adjudication.

Notably, the administration has suspended a policy instituted under President Donald Trump that effectively required judges to fulfill case quotas. The Trump-era rules required judges "to move cases through so fast that they potentially compromised individuals' due process rights," she said. The suspension of the old policy was implemented by David Neal, a Biden appointee who heads the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees immigration courts.

Neal also worked to increase access to pro bono legal aid for people appearing before immigration courts, Tsankov said.

Biden didn't fulfill his promise of doubling the number of immigration judges and staff, but he has so far enacted a 15% increase in judges. We rate this promise In the Works.