In July 2023, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at ports of entry across the United States issued a record number of Notices to Appear—44,900 in total—to immigrants who were found inadmissible under U.S. law. Noncitizens who are attempting to enter the United States may be found inadmissible for a variety of reasons, and an inadmissibility determination does not necessarily mean that the individual will not be allowed into the country on a temporary basis. However, Notices to Appear (NTAs), which put immigrants into removal proceedings within the immigration courts, were rarely used at ports of entry until the Biden administration. Unlike Border Patrol, which is responsible for immigration enforcement between ports of entry, the Office of Field Operations (OFO) is a separate agency responsible for processing people at ports of entry. According to data obtained and analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, OFO issued 280,000 NTAs in the first 10 months of FY 2023, a significant increase from 95,000 the previous year and up from about 48,000 five years ago in FY 2018.

KJ