The immigration courts are overwhelmed by their caseload already. As of Nov. 30, 2018, the courts had a backlog of 809,041 cases. This did not include an additional 330,211 cases that had not been put on the active docket yet, for a total backlog of 1,139,252 cases. The backlog was only 542,411 cases when Trump took office.
The average wait for a hearing is 1,018 days — more than two and a half years.