Honolulu Immigration Courts Face Rising Backlogs and Reduced Hearing Times
Honolulu’s immigration courts are grappling with unprecedented backlogs and extended wait times, marking the highest levels in the past 15 years. This situation is exacerbated by a significant increase in immigration arrests and policy shifts intended to expedite case resolutions.
Since 2020, the number of pending immigration cases in Honolulu has surged, with the backlog reaching 1,413 cases by March 2026, as reported by the Department of Homeland Security and released on May 6 by an immigration tracking project at Syracuse University. This backlog mirrors the total for the entire 2025 fiscal year, highlighting a pressing issue for the local courts.
Immigration arrests in Hawaiʻi have quadrupled in 2025 compared to the previous year, averaging 35 arrests per month in 2024. Although the arrest rate showed signs of decline in February, recent data from the Deportation Data Project indicates ongoing challenges.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is implementing strategies to reduce the national immigration case backlog, which has decreased from 3.7 million at the start of the Trump administration to 3.3 million by March. These strategies include limiting the time allocated for individual hearings in asylum cases and increasing pre-hearing removal requests.
In a social media post on April 4, DHS highlighted the record number of cases closed in FY2025 and the potential to surpass this record in the current fiscal year. However, these strategies have sparked concerns regarding due process among immigration attorneys.
Maui attorney Kevin Block noted that during the Covid-19 pandemic, new immigration cases began to surpass completed cases, with further increases observed in 2023 and 2024. “Some of the methods cause concern with regard to due process,” Block stated.
The average wait time for a case to appear in Honolulu’s immigration court has extended to 19 months, four months longer than the previous fiscal year, contributing to the overall delay in case resolutions. Block mentioned that immigration trials have been rescheduled to occur within the next six months to a year, with full-day hearings reduced to two-hour sessions.
Such reductions in hearing durations raise concerns about the thorough consideration of complex cases, which may involve multiple witnesses and intricate asylum claims. Block emphasized that “jamming it into a two-hour slot just feels like you’re rushing through due process rather than really giving people their day in court.”
DHS has also increased requests for pretermission, a process to terminate cases before full hearings, potentially leading to deportations to countries like Libya, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Honduras. In March alone, 48,000 pretermission motions were issued, double the number from March 2025.
Despite these policy changes, deportations from Hawaiʻi remain steady, with 153 removals recorded in the 2026 fiscal year to date, compared to 220 in the previous year. Legal representation rates vary by location, with urban areas like Honolulu seeing around 93% representation, while rural areas like South Kona experience lower rates.
Honolulu’s federal detention center, now accommodating more detainees due to increased ICE arrests, saw an average daily population rise from 15 in February to 73 by early April. The decline in the number of immigration judges from 735 to 557, partly due to firings during the Trump administration, poses additional challenges for DHS’s plans to accelerate hearings.
This article was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat and distributed in partnership with The Associated Press.
