What changed in this release
The court publishes no change log — it republishes its entire database each month. We keep the previous copy and compare the two, which shows what moved during the month: where the judge changed, where a hearing date appeared, where a decision was entered.
This compares two monthly releases; it is not a log of what happened in court. Each row states an observation only — "the proceeding has a different judge", not "the case was reassigned"; the release carries no reasons.
How this is counted
An event is dated by the release, not by the day it happened in court: roughly three weeks pass between the data cutoff and publication. Rows count different units — a proceeding, a case, a motion, an appeal, a bond — so they do not add up to a total. The "cases" column is filled in where a row touches fewer cases than events; a dash there means the two numbers matched.
What happened during the month
Counted over cases and proceedings present in both copies.
| Event | Count | Cases |
|---|---|---|
| Proceeding has a different judge | 286,806 | 284,454 |
| First hearing scheduled | 193,435 | — |
| Motion decided | 147,533 | 119,440 |
| Decision entered on a proceeding | 123,903 | — |
| Next hearing date moved | 90,306 | — |
| New cases in the release | 50,274 | — |
| Proceeding has a different court | 115,022 | — |
| New proceeding on an existing case | 34,525 | 32,676 |
| Appeal filed with the BIA | 18,216 | 18,151 |
| Bond decided | 9,763 | 9,043 |
| BIA appeal decided | 3,378 | 3,359 |
| Scheduled hearing no longer listed | 1,977 | — |
| Case no longer in the release | 436 | — |
| Proceeding no longer in the release | 568 | 566 |
| Decision removed from a proceeding | 247 | — |
Which way dates move
Among cases whose next hearing was scheduled in both the previous copy and this one.
- To an earlier date89,768 (99.4%)median 218 days, half the cases within 68–483 days
- To a later date538 (0.6%)median 119 days, half the cases within 40–215 days
A move to an earlier date usually does not mean a rescheduling: a new, earlier hearing appeared on the calendar and became the next one for that case. The release shows the result, not the court's action — which is why this says "the date moved", not "the hearing was rescheduled".
The backlog
Proceedings with no completion date — what the courts still have to hear.
- In the previous release
- 3,141,820
- In this one
- 3,093,605
- Decision entered
- 123,903
- Newly opened, still undecided
- 76,006
- Decision removed
- 247
- Disappeared while undecided
- 565
Of 123,903 new decisions, 6,686 (5.4%) are dated on or before the previous cutoff: the previous release should have shown them and did not. Another 11,296 proceedings arrived already decided — they never spent a day in the backlog.
How much the source rewrites the past
Over months both releases cover in full. A plus means the new copy holds more records for that month than the previous one did.
| Month | Asylum decisions | Completed proceedings | Hearings | Motions decided |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 2026 | +4.9% | +4.1% | 0 | +6.2% |
| Jun 2026 | +2.0% | +0.2% | 0 | +0.8% |
| May 2026 | +0.9% | 0 | 0 | +0.1% |
| Apr 2026 | +0.7% | 0 | 0 | +0.1% |
| Mar 2026 | +0.5% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 2026 | +0.7% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jan 2026 | +0.6% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dec 2025 | +0.6% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nov 2025 | +0.7% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 2025 | +0.5% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2025 | +0.5% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 2025 | +0.4% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 2025 | +0.7% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 2025 | +0.6% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May 2025 | +0.4% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Apr 2025 | +0.5% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2025 | +0.5% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 2025 | +0.8% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jan 2025 | +1.2% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dec 2024 | +0.8% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nov 2024 | +1.2% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 2024 | +0.5% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2024 | +0.9% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 2024 | +0.6% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
How much the source rewrites what it already published. The practical consequence is one: the most recent month is always incomplete and cannot be compared with earlier ones.
How this is counted
Measured over months both releases cover in full: if the new copy reports more decisions for March than the previous one did, the difference is records entered after the fact. The calendar is barely revised, while decisions are revised more the closer the month is to the cutoff.
Across releases
A single release is a snapshot and cannot say whether the backlog is growing or shrinking. The series starts from the month we began keeping copies.
| Release | In the backlog | Of those, unscheduled | Hearings scheduled ahead | Asylum grant rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-06 | 3,195,566 | 426,712 | 3,799,951 | 33.8% |
| 2026-07 | 3,141,820−53,746 | 423,645 | 3,791,019 | 33.4% |
| 2026-08 | 3,093,605−48,215 | 447,749 | 3,723,831 | 33.0% |
A single release cannot answer whether the backlog is growing or shrinking — it is a snapshot. Only a series can, and it starts not from the beginning of the data but from the month we began keeping both copies. Until there are three points no direction is drawn: the difference between two snapshots is one point, not a trend.
Data is current as of August 31, 2026