Davorin Odrcic:
And so, for example, I had a client, we filed for asylum affirmatively, I think in 2015. It took five years for the interview. So the interview, I think, was in 2020. It took another year to have a decision, which was essentially not a grant — it was, we're going to now have you go to immigration court where you renew your application in front of a judge. I think that was in 2021. And we've been now waiting three years for a final merits hearing where my client can tell his story to an immigration judge. So we're almost at 10 years, which is not a good thing for anyone.

Nathan Denzin:
Is that common?

Davorin Odrcic:
It's especially common with affirmative applications. So I mentioned sort of before about people that are coming through at the southern border, but there are other people that are applying for asylum. So someone who comes in on a visitors visa. They come in on a visitors visa — a visitors visa, you're only usually, like the longest you could stay on a visitors visa is 180 days. Someone comes in on their visitors visa, and they apply for asylum affirmatively to the asylum office. Those folks are experiencing extraordinary delays. As an example, earlier this week I was at the Chicago asylum office for an interview. That application was filed in April of 2016 — so, eight-and-a-half years. We finally get an interview, and that's not a good thing. That's not a good thing for the applicant — I mean, it's challenging to basically have to explain something that happened traumatically. Awful, right? But also that now you have to try to remember things that happened almost a decade ago. Now, what's interesting, which I don't think a lot of people know, but the Immigration and Nationality Act actually has a deadline, a statutory deadline. It says absent exceptional circumstances, the date of the interview shall be — should happen, sorry. Let me put that back. I don't think a lot of people know this, but there is a statutory deadline in the Immigration and Nationality Act. A person that files for asylum is supposed to have that interview occur within 45 days of filing, and that deadline is being massively blown across the board. It's gotten to the point where, and I have done this for at least one client, is we have to file a lawsuit, called a writ of mandamus, where we go into federal court, and we basically tell the judge this is taking too long, and this is something that the U.S. government doesn't have the discretion, and here is basically what the law says, that it's supposed to be within this certain time period, and it's being massively blown. And the reason is is that there's too many cases, and there's not enough resources to handle those cases.