Immigration Courts
Immigration courts play a crucial role in ensuring that immigration laws are applied fairly and consistently, providing due process to those facing removal. Learn more about issues facing the courts today and explore the actions we're taking to ensure the rights of immigrants are upheld and legal integrity is maintained.
Court Rules That Immigration Authorities May Not Deny Bond Hearings to Children
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals delivered a strong rebuke to the government’s years-long effort to strip detained immigrant children of the right to a bond hearing in immigration court. The 3-0 decision, authored by Judge Reinhardt on Wednesday, came in a case involving the 1997 Flores settlement… Read More
Immigration Justice Campaign Launched to Train Legal Community to Defend Against Ramped-Up Deportation Machine
The American Immigration Council and the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) are responding to this representation crisis with an Immigration Justice Campaign, a new initiative to prepare more lawyers to be cutting-edge defenders of immigrants facing deportatio Read More
Why Are the Immigration Courts So Backlogged? Government Findings May Surprise You
Anyone familiar with the immigration system knows that the immigration courts have an enormous backlog which has persisted—and grown—for more than a decade. As of April 2017, the immigration court backlog topped 585,930 cases, more than double the pending cases in fiscal year (FY) 2006 (212,000). The immigration… Read More
Federal Court Blocks DOJ’s Attempt to Restrict Access to Legal Assistance
On Wednesday, a federal court in Seattle issued a nationwide temporary restraining order allowing nonprofits to continue to provide limited legal assistance to immigrants without being forced to formally represent them in immigration court. The order was issued in a lawsuit brought by the Northwest Immigrants… Read More
Sessions Reveals Plan to Ramp up Prosecutions of Low Level Immigration Offenses
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a shift in policy for the Department of Justice on Tuesday, directing U.S. attorneys to prioritize criminal immigration enforcement and drastically expand federal court prosecutions of immigration violators across the nation. Operation Streamline and other border enforcement programs—where some border crossers are referred by… Read More
Ferino-Sanchez v. Sessions — Fourth Circuit
This amicus brief arguing that any Fourth Amendment violation by state and local law enforcement officers — not just egregious Fourth Amendments violations — should require the suppression of evidence in immigration court proceedings, which is the same standard that applies in the criminal justice arena. Read More
The Sad State of Atlanta’s Immigration Court
The Atlanta immigration court is known as one of the worst places to be in deportation proceedings. For years, the judges have been accused of abusive and unprofessional practices and the denial rate of asylum applications alone is 98 percent. The latest effort to document this phenomenon comes… Read More
Attorney General Sessions’ First Orders of Business on Immigration
Jeff Sessions was confirmed as Attorney General this week by a vote of 52-47, following a very contentious confirmation process. As Attorney General and head of the Department of Justice (DOJ), Sessions will oversee key immigration-related functions. The three recently issued executive orders on immigration give the Attorney… Read More
New Immigration Court Directive Could Weaken Due Process
The Trump administration released a memorandum this week–effective immediately–which orders the Department of Justice Executive Office for Immigration Review (which manages the immigration courts) to prioritize deportation hearings for certain groups, including any non-citizens who are detained and unaccompanied children who do not have a sponsor. The memo rescinded preexisting… Read More
Meet the Plaintiffs Challenging the Discriminatory Nature of President Trump’s Muslim Ban
The fallout continues from last week’s immigration executive order, which has been coined the “Muslim Ban.” Several lawsuits have been filed to challenge the executive order, including Ali v. Trump, on the grounds that it violates the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law and a statutory prohibition against… Read More
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