AILA’s Advocacy Action Center allows you to advocate for legislative and policy reforms consistent with AILA’s principles and priorities.
Get InvolvedThe brand-new 18th edition of Kurzban's Immigration Law Sourcebook is now shipping.
Order NowLearn how to tackle challenges like finding and retaining affordable staff, working better in a hybrid or remote environment, when and how to raise fees, and much more.
Register NowAILALink puts an entire immigration law library at your fingertips! Search the AILALink database for all your practice needs—statutes, regs, case law, agency guidance, publications, and more.
AILA Doc. No. 21102105 | Dated October 21, 2021
WASHINGTON, DC – The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) welcomed news that the Biden administration has removed the artificial quotas imposed on immigration judges by the Trump administration. The Trump administration had imposed case completion quotas as part of the performance review process for immigration judges, requiring them to finish 700 cases per year or face disciplinary action.
AILA President-Elect Jeremy McKinney stated, “It is heartening to see the Biden administration rescinding these quotas as part of an effort to return integrity to the life and death decisions immigration judges make every day. AILA opposed these quotas from the start, knowing that with a clock constantly ticking over their heads, judges cannot possibly issue well-reasoned decisions that carefully weigh the facts and applicable law in each person’s case. Removing these quotas is an important step forward.”
AILA Senior Associate Director for Government Relations Kate Voigt urged further action, “While eliminating the quotas is vital, we remain concerned that other Trump-era policies continue to undercut the integrity and independence of our immigration courts. For instance, Immigration Adjudications Centers (IACS) – black box, remote-only facilities that undermine due process – have been expanded, and this administration is returning to the use of tent courts which were widely condemned during the Trump administration because of due process concerns. President Biden knows he must reduce the overwhelming backlog of 1.4 million cases, but the solution cannot be to speed up court hearings at the expense of justice, which unfortunately Attorney General Garland has resorted to. We cannot afford to have our immigration courts battered by the changing winds of politics. Congress must create a permanent, independent court system under Article I of the Constitution to safeguard judicial integrity and impartiality.”
Cite as AILA Doc. No. 21102105.
American Immigration Lawyers Association
1331 G Street NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20005
Copyright © 1993-
American Immigration Lawyers Association.
AILA.org should not be relied upon as the exclusive source for your legal research. Nothing on AILA.org constitutes legal advice, and information on AILA.org is not a substitute for independent legal advice based on a thorough review and analysis of the facts of each individual case, and independent research based on statutory and regulatory authorities, case law, policy guidance, and for procedural issues, federal government websites.