Due Process and the Courts
Supreme Court Rejects Two Ninth Circuit Decisions That Protected Immigrants
In two unanimous decisions, the Supreme Court has rejected rules that provided protections for immigrants. The rejected rules came from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, a court with a reputation as a liberal stronghold. It is the largest of all the federal courts of appeals. In… Read More
First Round of Biden Immigration Judges Fails to Increase Diversity
The Biden administration announced its first round of immigration judge appointments on May 6. Unfortunately, the immigration court appointments do not show the commitment to diversity that President Biden has demonstrated in his federal court appointments. All of the new judges had received conditional offers from the Trump administration. The current administration was under no obligation… Read More
Supreme Court Rejects Government Practice of ‘Notice-by-Installment’ in Niz-Chavez v. Garland
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week in Niz-Chavez v. Garland that immigration law requires the government to give noncitizens complete notice about the initiation of their immigration court case at one time. The April 29 ruling denounces the government’s current practice of providing necessary information over time and in… Read More
The Supreme Court Makes It Harder for Immigrants to Fight Deportation
The U.S. Supreme Court published a new decision on March 4 that will make it harder—if not impossible—for many longtime immigrants to fight deportation. The case, Pereida v. Wilkson, abandons decades of Supreme Court precedent on the immigration consequences of criminal convictions. Undocumented immigrants and other noncitizens who are… Read More
A Federal Defender System for Immigrants Is Long Overdue
The stakes in immigration court could not be higher—many people face the possibility of being permanently torn away from their families and communities in the United States. Others seeking protection in the U.S. risk being forced back to dangerous conditions in their home countries. Despite these extraordinarily high stakes, immigrants… Read More
In a Win for Transparency, Court Orders Board of Immigration Appeals to Make Immigration Court Decisions Public
The Second Circuit has found that the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) must publish immigration decisions, reversing an earlier federal district court decision. The case challenged the Department of Justice’s longstanding practice of failing to publish immigration decisions by the BIA—the highest administrative court deciding immigration cases—in any… Read More
Immigrants Appear for Their Court Hearings, New Data Shows
Do most immigrants show up for their immigration court hearings? A new report released by the American Immigration Council reveals that the answer to this question is a clear “Yes.” As the Biden administration begins its overhaul of the immigration enforcement system, we must ensure that our policies… Read More
Trump’s Drastic Immigration Court Fee Hikes Are Blocked in Court
The Trump administration has repeatedly tried to stop low-income immigrants from accessing protections and exercising their rights in the United States. Its last attempt—increasing immigration court fees by up to 800% through a new rule—was largely blocked in federal court on January 18, just hours before the rule was due… Read More
It’s Time to Fix the Immigration Court System
This article is part of the Moving Forward on Immigration series that explores the future of immigration in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. The backbone of a functioning justice system is due process. Yet over 1.25 million immigrants are fighting for their right to survive in an immigration… Read More
USCIS and ICE Must Give People Access to Their Immigration Files After Losing Lawsuit
People who need access to their government immigration records scored a huge victory in the Nightingale et al. v. USCIS case on December 17. A judge ruled that a nationwide class of individuals should have access to their immigration files—called A-Files—within the timeframes outlined in the Freedom of Information… Read More
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