“During FY 2014, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) filed 222,956 applications for removal orders in Immigration Court, up 12.2 percent from the previous year. Despite an overall increase, there was a substantial drop in the number of applications that were based on allegations of criminal activity by the individual. In fact, only 20,217 out of the total filings in FY 2014 were based on some criminal offense. This is down from 27,671 individuals out of the 198,723 total filings in FY 2013 that were based on allegations of criminal activity. The Court’s backlog of pending cases reached 421,972 cases at the end of October 2014 –- a dramatic rise of 22.6 percent since September 30, 2013. These results are based on the latest court data obtained and analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University. For the latest data on court filings by charge, covering all of FY 2014 plus the first month (October) of FY 2015, go here. To see details on the backlog by state, immigration court, hearing location and nationality, go here.”