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.
Three-Year-Old Immigrant Child Released After Two Years of Detention
An immigration judge ordered the immediate release of a three-year-old immigrant child and his mother from a detention center in rural Pennsylvania on Monday, stating that it was one of the most sympathetic cases for release he had encountered in his career. The child’s release marks what will hopefully be… Read More
Government Moves to Curb Non-Citizens’ Ability to Get More Time to Prepare for Hearings
In a move to reduce the number of times immigration judges reschedule immigration hearings, the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) recently issued guidance suggesting judges should change practices regarding “continuances.” A continuance, which only may be granted for “good cause,” is a critically important option for individuals who… Read More
Motions to Suppress in Removal Proceedings: Fighting Back Against Unlawful Conduct by U.S. Customs and Border Protection
This Practice Advisory addresses some of the legal issues that may arise when noncitizens in removal proceedings seek to suppress evidence unlawfully obtained by Customs and Border Protection officers. Read More
Data Shows Prosecutorial Discretion Grinds to a Halt in Immigration Courts
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced last month that it now has hired 326 immigration judges, 53 more judges than July 2016, yet during that time the immigration court backlog has grown. According to new data released by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) the reason for… Read More
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
America's story is an immigrant story.
