Under the administration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, almost 1 million illegal immigrants have been allowed to stay in the U.S. indefinitely due to case dismissals and failures to file necessary paperwork, according to a new report from the House Judiciary Committee.

"Through administrative maneuvering at both the Justice Department and DHS, the Biden-Harris Administration has already ensured that nearly 1 million illegal aliens can remain in the United States without the possibility of deportation — and that trend shows no sign of stopping," the report read.

The 700 or so immigration judges in the U.S. have faced backlogs of cases due to the high number of illegal immigrants that have been encountered at the border.

Around 700,000 cases were dismissed to try to clear these backlogs, another 109,000 were never adjudicated in 2023, and for another 200,000 migrants, the paperwork was not filed on time.

"In limbo"

While none of the migrants in these cases can now be deported, they also don't gain legal status.

Instead, they are in limbo and will likely never be able to become legal citizens unless some kind of amnesty is passed.

"Instead of actually adjudicating illegal aliens’ cases based on the merits of aliens’ claims for relief — such as whether an alien has a valid and successful asylum claim — immigration judges under the Biden-Harris Administration have been tasked with rubberstamping case dismissals, case closures, and case terminations, all of which allow illegal aliens to remain in the United States without immigration consequences," the report says. "This sort of quiet amnesty has become a staple of the Biden-Harris Administration’s immigration courts."

The judges were encouraged by the DOJ under Merrick Garland to use a process known as "administrative closure" to dismiss large numbers of cases and focus on "higher-priority" ones.

"In weaponizing both immigration judges within the Justice Department and ICE attorneys within DHS, the Biden-Harris Administration has guaranteed that upward of 1 million aliens — the overwhelming majority of whom likely would otherwise not have a legal basis to remain in the United States — can stay in the country indefinitely," the report says. "This quiet amnesty not only undermines U.S. immigration law but also incentivizes additional illegal aliens to arrive at America’s borders, knowing they will be released into the country and never deported."

DHS defends itself

DHS noted that it has filed 96% of notices to appear since 2021 and 98% since 2023.

When paperwork isn't filed on time or correctly, it gets resubmitted and migrants are told to check back in about their cases. The cases are not dismissed, the agency said.

The Biden administration said that migrant encounters have dropped 55% since Joe Biden signed an executive order limiting entries at the border, and that 700,000 migrants have been returned in 2024 so far, which represents the most since 2010.

Immigration is one of the bigger issues on voters' minds for the 2024 election, and both candidates are claiming they would do better than the other one on the issue.

Harris was assigned to be the border czar by Biden early in his tenure, but only visited the border after months of badgering and accusations of neglect.