Federal Courts/Jurisdiction
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
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
Asylum Is In Danger After Court Upholds Rushed Screening Process at the Border
The Trump administration secretly implemented one of its most horrific attacks on America’s long tradition of asylum—holding asylum seekers in U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody during their initial asylum interview. The “Prompt Asylum Claim Review” and “Humanitarian Asylum Review Process,” (“PACR/HARP”) put in place in October 2019,… Read More
A Judge Fully Reinstated DACA, but Dreamers Are Still in Danger
A federal judge in New York has overturned the Trump administration’s latest effort to limit the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative. DACA temporarily protects certain people without immigration status from deportation and provides them with a work permit. The Trump administration’s previous effort to end the initiative altogether… Read More
Federal Court Invalidates Changes to DACA Because Chad Wolf Was Unlawfully Appointed
A judge has ruled that recent changes to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) that were a veiled attempt to gut the program are invalid because Chad Wolf—the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—was not lawfully appointed to his position. The federal judge’s decision may signal that… Read More
Trump’s Public Charge Rule Blocked Yet Again in Court
Update: On November 5, the Seven Circuit Court of appeals placed an administrative stay on the district court’s ruling, restoring the public charge rule at least temporarily. The Trump administration’s public charge rule has been blocked nationwide for a third time by a federal judge in Illinois who… Read More
Ninth Circuit Court Allows Trump’s Plan to End Temporary Protected Status to Go Forward
In a split decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Trump administration’s termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for four countries can proceed. The fate of nearly 250,000 people from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan—and their families—is at stake. The case, Ramos v. Nielsen,… Read More
TPS Termination Will Disrupt Communities Across America and Upend the Lives of Thousands of U.S. Citizen Children
A federal court has ruled that the Trump administration’s termination of Temporary Protected Status for more than 300,000 people living in the United States can continue. Read More
Requesting Attorneys’ Fees Under the Equal Access to Justice Act
In the immigration context, Equal Access to Justice Act fees generally are available in petitions for review, mandamus actions, Administrative Procedure Act suits, habeas corpus actions, and naturalization actions. Read More
Council Submits Amicus Brief on Two-Step Notice Practice to Supreme Court in Niz-Chavez v. Barr
This amicus brief in Niz-Chavez v. Barr urges the Supreme Court to reject the government’s practice of issuing notice of the time and place of a noncitizen’s removal proceedings in multiple documents over time, instead of in the initial Notice to Appear (NTA), as mandated by Congress. Read More
America's story is an immigrant story.
