During U.S. President Donald Trump’s first year back in office, his administration shifted U.S. immigration courts significantly toward stricter enforcement.
Data from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), the agency within the U.S. Department of Justice that operates U.S. immigration courts, reveals that the percentage of asylum applications granted by immigration judges dropped to 8.8 percent through the second quarter of fiscal 2026 — down from 24.4 percent in fiscal 2025 and 45.7 percent in fiscal 2024.
The monthly asylum grant rate, when tracked since the beginning of Barack Obama’s presidency, fell to seven percent in February 2026, a sharp decline from over 50 percent during parts of both Obama’s and Joe Biden’s presidencies and below Trump’s initial term levels.
The number of removal orders issued by EOIR has surged by 57 percent from fiscal 2024 to fiscal 2025. Additionally, the number of “voluntary departure” orders has reached record highs.
The backlog in immigration court cases shrank during fiscal 2025, marking the first time in 17 years (since fiscal 2008) that more asylum cases were completed than initiated — though this reduction is modest given the sharp rise in asylum applications under Biden’s open-border policies.
These trends indicate a concerted effort by the Department of Justice to tighten immigration enforcement and increase deportations, including through the rejection of large volumes of dubious asylum claims.
The Trump administration has reversed previous policies. During the Biden administration, asylum grants were significantly higher, and “administrative closure” was used to indefinitely postpone deportations for inadmissible migrants. A 2024 report by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee titled “Quiet Amnesty: How the Biden-Harris Administration Uses the Nation’s Immigration Courts to Advance an Open-borders Agenda” found that over 700,000 illegal aliens had their cases dismissed, terminated, or administratively closed, enabling them to remain in the country without immigration consequences.
By reversing these policies and implementing broader measures on mass migration, the Trump administration has driven down legal and illegal migration to historic lows.
Challenges persist — including record-high “abandonments” (cases where aliens failed to attend hearings) and unprocessed cases, which stem from the Biden-era crisis — and the U.S. asylum system requires fundamental reform that only Congress can enact. However, the EOIR data show that the Trump administration has delivered on immigration enforcement.