The number of administratively closed immigration cases placed back on the docket in San Diego soared by 750% just through July of this year, compared to all of 2024, according to data obtained by NBC 7 Investigates.
The process called recalendaring—when cases that have been administratively closed are put back on the docket in immigration court—brings thousands of people with cases paused 10 to 15 years ago back into active deportation proceedings.
“They were not terminated, but they were placed on hold,” said immigration attorney Raul Montes. “Many of them based on humanitarian grounds.”
“This is something that we saw a lot during the Obama administration, where they determined which cases were priorities,” immigration attorney Maria Chavez added. “An individual had, you know, a clean record, no prior deportations, had lived in the U.S. for a certain amount of time, they were deemed to not be a priority, so their cases could be administratively closed, which means put on pause.”
Once cases are administratively closed, individuals often proceed through U.S. Customs and Immigration Services, where they can be granted work authorization.
“Under the law, both the non-citizen and ICE have the authority to ask the court to recalendar those cases or take them off of pause, press play again, and so that’s what’s happening now,” Chavez said.
Data from the Department of Justice, obtained and analyzed by NBC 7 Investigates, shows that in all of 2024, 348 cases were recalendared in San Diego. This year, just through July, that number rose to 2,958, marking a 750% increase.
Nationwide, 14,661 cases were recalendared in 2024, compared to 93,925 through mid-July, a 540% spike.
A DOJ memo from April criticized the practice of administratively closing cases, calling it “a de facto amnesty program” that has strained the backlogged immigration courts, adding that its use between 2011 through 2017, and again from 2021 to 2025, was “an unmitigated disaster.”
“The Biden administration chose to release millions of illegal aliens, including criminals, into the country and used prosecutorial discretion to indefinitely delay their cases and allow them to illegally remain in the United States,” Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement, when asked about the recalendared cases.
“The average illegal alien gets far more due process than most Americans. The fact of the matter is those who are in our country illegally have a choice—they can leave the country voluntarily or be arrested and deported,” McLaughlin’s statement continued. “This Administration is once again fighting for the rule of law. President Trump and Secretary Noem are following the law and resuming these illegal aliens’ removal proceedings while ensuring their cases are heard by a judge.”
But immigration attorneys pointed to detention and deportation quotas set months ago by senior Trump administration officials.
“This is low-hanging fruit for the administration,” Chavez said. “So they see these as people—OK, you’re already on the radar, you already have a pending court case. All we’ve got to do is reopen the court case and get you deported through court. And then, bam, we have another deportation number.”
“These are not criminals,” Montes said. “That’s why the cases were closed.”
“I go to bed thinking about what’s going to happen, I get up thinking about what’s going to happen,” one man, whose case was recalendared in San Diego, said in Spanish. In the U.S. since 2001, he asked not to be identified for his safety.
With no criminal history, his case was administratively closed in 2013, at which point he said he was happy—he thought it was over. He obtained work authorization and has worked as a roofer, paying taxes and establishing roots, attending church.
“Twenty-four years, I’ve built a life here,” he said in Spanish. “If I have to start over again, only God will tell.”
When his case was recalendared this month, he was placed on an ankle monitor and is now afraid again of being deported.
“They’re doing whatever they want to push Latinos out, nothing else,” he said in Spanish.
His sister became a U.S. citizen, he said, with the only difference between them being that the government didn’t bring a case against her, but they did against him.
In a strange way, he’s fortunate that he even knows his case has picked up again. In many cases, the attorneys are the ones given the notices.
“The problem is that attorneys move, they change offices, attorneys die, attorneys retire, and so that notice isn’t always received,” Chavez said.
When they do receive the notices, they’re then tasked with contacting their clients from 10 to 15 years ago.
“Many of them have moved, new telephone numbers, new addresses,” Montes said. “So basically, you have to become an investigator or hire an investigator to locate them.”
Montes said some clients are more difficult to find, like one of his, who, in the years since, caught COVID and died.
“So obviously, the case, it doesn’t make a difference in this case that it’s recalendared. He’s gone,” Montes said.
“What I’ve heard from colleagues is that when they receive this motion to recalendar, they send the death certificate to ICE, to the ICE prosecutors. And the ICE prosecutors essentially say, ‘Well, let the judge decide,’” Chavez said. “And then, you know, you go to court and you’re like, ‘Well, Your Honor, my client’s dead.’”
For those without an attorney, the notice is sent to an immigrant’s last known address. Immigrants are responsible for keeping their address updated, but many do so with USCIS, which doesn’t always update their court file.
Lawyers said really anyone who’s been in immigration court should talk to an immigration attorney and check if their case has been administratively closed or recalendared, particularly because anyone who misses a hearing will be ordered deported in their absence.
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