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.
It’s Time to Close the Immigration Courts
As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) spreads and entire states go into quarantine, immigrants and their attorneys are still being forced to gather in cramped immigration courtrooms inside detention centers around the country. These hearings pose an obvious public health risk and run contrary to the government’s own recommendations regarding social… Read More
Lawsuit Seeks Halt to Dangerous and Unconstitutional Policies Endangering Immigration Attorneys, Clients, and the Public During the COVID-19 Pandemic
This lawsuit demands the government take immediate actions to prioritize the health and safety of attorneys and clients at risk in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Read More
Citing Coronavirus Risks and a New Irresponsible Policy for the Immigration Courts, Groups Urge Protecting the Health and Safety of Government Employees, Lawyers, and Immigrants
In a letter calling for prioritizing the health and safety of government employees, detained individuals, and their legal representatives amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the American Immigration Council and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, together with the National Immigrant Justice Center, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and more than 100 other organizations, urged the U.S. Department of Justice Executive Office for Immigration Review and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to immediately authorize the robust and automatic use of remote options for immigration court appearances and attorney-client meetings. Read More
Lawsuit Seeks to Uncover Problematic Board of Immigration Appeals’ Hiring Procedures
The American Immigration Council and the American Immigration Lawyers Association filed a lawsuit Tuesday in federal court to compel the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy to release records about the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s hiring procedures for appellate immigration judges and Board of Immigration Appeals Members. The lawsuit seeks to understand current hiring procedures for the BIA—the highest administrative body for interpreting and applying immigration laws—after reports came to light of anti-immigrant bias in the hiring process. Read More
The Department of Justice is Restructuring Immigration Courts in Secret
The Trump administration has steadily implemented initiatives to restructure the immigration court system without providing much information to the public. The lack of government transparency around these changes is especially important because they compromise fairness in the courts. The Department of Justice (DOJ) oversees the Executive Office for Immigration Review… Read More
Calls for Independent Immigration Court Grow Louder at Congressional Hearing
A congressional oversight committee held a hearing this week on the need for immigration court reform and the systemic due process challenges within the immigration court system. The House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship heard from several experts on the issue. Most experts made… Read More
Tent Immigration Courts Are Still Not Fully Open to the Public
Asylum seekers subject to the Migrant Protection Protocols—or the “Remain in Mexico” program—in Laredo and Brownsville, Texas attend their court hearings in tents known as “port courts.” The government announced these secretive courts would finally be opened last week, but the public still does not have full access. For the… Read More
‘Zero Tolerance’ Overwhelmed Courts and Diverted Resources From Criminal Investigations
Attorney General Sessions’ orders to prioritize prosecuting people for immigration-related offenses in 2017 and 2018 put a significant strain on law enforcement across the border, diverting resources away from drug and organized crime prosecutions. The increase in immigration prosecutions, which played a primary role in the… Read More
Immigration Courts Further Limit Legal Help Available to People Facing Deportation
Every year, thousands of people are forced to face the complex deportation system without an attorney representing them. Now, the immigration courts are seeking to limit the assistance that these individuals can receive from “friend of the court” attorneys. The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), the agency which includes… Read More
What’s Happened to the People Returned to Mexico Under the Migrant Protection Protocols?
It’s been nearly a year since the Trump administration announced the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), or the “Remain in Mexico” program. This program forces vulnerable asylum seekers to return to Mexico to await their U.S. immigration court dates. It has since been expanded to six cities… Read More
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