President Joe Biden didn’t just preside over a border surge that allowed millions of illegal aliens to cross — his administration also engineered what can only be described as a “quiet amnesty” for nearly 1 million more. We’re finding out now because the Department of Justice quietly revealed that Biden officials improperly “terminated,” “dismissed,” or “closed” close to a million immigration cases.
The tool of choice was the DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, or Executive Office for Immigration Review — the office that oversees deportation cases. Under DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the administration used EOIR to manipulate removal hearings, gutting pending cases under the banner of “prosecutorial discretion.” Translation: don’t decide the case, just make it disappear.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan tracked this maneuver. In October 2024, his staff reported that more than 700,000 illegal aliens had their cases dismissed, terminated, or administratively closed — allowing them to remain in the country indefinitely without facing immigration consequences. EOIR has now updated its statistics, pushing that number to nearly 1 million. No press release. No spotlight. The figures simply appeared in a chart buried deep in official statistics. Subtle, right?
“Dismissals” and “terminations” mean DHS identified removable aliens and filed charges, then dropped the cases instead of finishing them. As for “administrative closure,” it was sold as a temporary pause. New data show the average closure in immigration court lasts more than 17 years. Before the Board of Immigration Appeals? Over 29 years. Some of these cases were shelved before many Americans were even born. That’s not a pause — that’s a retirement plan.
The administration knew Congress wouldn’t approve mass legalization after opening the border, so DHS and DOJ took the back door: manipulate the courts and call it management. Nearly 1 million removable aliens were left in legal limbo — effectively rewarded for crossing illegally.
These individuals aren’t technically undeportable. But now Immigration and Customs Enforcement would have to find them, refile charges, and restart cases from scratch. That’s the legacy of “quiet amnesty”: chaos first, paperwork later.
The good news? The truth is out. Sunlight is finally hitting the numbers, and accountability is back on the table. When the system is exposed, it can be fixed — and restoring order to immigration courts is exactly how America gets back to enforcing the law fairly and firmly.
