Broken system: Deportation backlog now nearly three years for average case

More than 1.3 million people are currently awaiting deportation decisions in immigration courts, and the average case has been pending for nearly three years, according to new data that sheds light on just how broken the U.S. immigration system has become.

A decade ago just 300,000 cases were pending, and even three years ago it was fewer than 770,000 cases, meaning the government has netted more than 550,000 cases on its docket since 2018, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at...