Featured Issue: U.S. Immigration Courts under Trump 2.0
The U.S. immigration court system plays a critical role in upholding due process and ensuring fair hearings for individuals facing deportation. However, since January 20, 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has implemented significant changes that challenge the structural integrity of these courts. This page aims to provide up-to-date information on the policy and legal shifts affecting the U.S. immigration court system.
Latest Updates
Updates from EOIR
Browse the Featured Issue: U.S. Immigration Courts under Trump 2.0 collection
Empty Benches: Underfunding of Immigration Courts Undermines Justice
AIC report analyzing the shortage of immigration judges in the U.S. immigration system. Congress has increased enforcement funding exponentially, yet has not provided the immigration courts commensurate funding and the resulting backlog has led to serious adverse consequences.
BIA Finds Prior Attorneys Provided Ineffective Assistance By Failing to Investigate Eligibility for Cancellation of Removal
Unpublished BIA decision finds that respondent’s two prior attorneys failed to adequately investigate whether she satisfied the seven-year continuous residence requirement necessary to apply for cancellation of removal. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Lopez, 6/17/16)
CA6 Finds USCIS’s Denial of Adjustment Application Was Final Agency Action Under APA
The court reversed the district court, holding that where no removal proceedings are pending, USCIS’s denial of an application for adjustment of status under INA §209 marks the consummation of the agency’s decision-making process. (Hosseini v. Johnson, et al., 6/17/16)
CA4 Says BIA Did Not Abuse Its Discretion in Denying Equitable Tolling
The court concluded that the BIA acted within its discretion in denying the petitioner’s request to equitably toll the 90-day statutory deadline to file a motion to reopen, and that it lacked jurisdiction to review the BIA’s decision to deny sua sponte reopening. (Lawrence v. Lynch, 6/17/16)
CA8 Upholds Denial of Asylum to Guatemalan Mother and Her Minor Sons
The court upheld BIA’s denial of asylum, finding that petitioners, a Guatemalan mother and her minor sons, failed to establish past persecution or to show a well-founded fear of future persecution on the basis of their family membership. (Garcia-Milian v. Lynch, 6/17/16)
BIA Orders Further Consideration of Particular Social Group
Unpublished BIA decision reverses adverse credibility finding and orders further consideration of asylum application based on particular social group consisting of “witnesses of criminal conduct committed by Guatemalan police.” Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of E-D-R-, 6/17/16)
Sign-On Letter on Immigration Raids and Other Enforcement Actions Against Central American
On 6/16/16, more than 156 organizations joined AILA in urging DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson and Attorney General Loretta Lynch to stop using aggressive tactics against Central Americans, especially families and children, and to ensure due process before an individual is deported.
DHS OIG Report on the Release of Jean Jacques from ICE Custody
DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a report on the circumstances by which Jean Jacques, a Haitian national previously convicted of attempted murder and subject to a final order of removal, was released from ICE custody and killed another individual while on release.
BIA Says Arizona Shoplifting Not a CIMT
Unpublished BIA decision holds shoplifting under Ariz. Rev. Stat. 13-1805 is not a crime involving moral turpitude because it does not require an intent to permanently deprive the owner of property. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Carlos-Solis, 6/16/16)
BIA Finds Evidence of Marriage Fraud Not Sufficiently Reliable
Unpublished BIA decision finds that evidence of marriage fraud was impermissibly unreliable where notes from USCIS officer were unauthenticated and written statement from prior spouse did not address bona fides of the marriage. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Joda, 6/15/16)
CA11 Outlines Approach for Determining When a Detained Criminal Noncitizen Must Receive a Bond Hearing
The court held that INA §236(c) contains an implicit temporal limitation against the unreasonably prolonged detention of criminal noncitizens without an individualized bond hearing, and outlined a way to determine when detention becomes unreasonably protracted. (Sopo v. Att'y Gen., 6/15/16)
Due Process Denied: Central Americans Seeking Asylum and Legal Protection in the United States
In this report, AILA makes recommendations to restore due process for the thousands of Central American children, families, and single adults who are seeking asylum and legal protection at our border from grave and life-threating violence that has plagued the Northern Triangle region.
CARA Shares Update on Recent ICE Actions Targeting Central American Families
CARA shares new details about Central American families targeted by ICE enforcement actions for deportation. The cases show that the U.S. government is denying due process and meaningful opportunities to seek asylum or other legal protection; many families have claims that have never been heard.
AILA Details Necessary Steps to Guarantee Due Process to Refugees and Asylum Seekers
In a statement highlighting the release of AILA’s new Due Process Denied report, AILA President Victor Nieblas Pradis noted, “The response thus far from the Obama Administration to the refugee situation in Central America has been abysmal...We can, and must, do better than this.”
AILA Quicktake #168: Due Process Denied
AILA's Director of Advocacy Greg Chen shares details from AILA's report on the due process violations Central Americans are experiencing as they seek protection in the United States.
Law Student Perspective: Supreme Court to Review Obama’s Executive Actions on Immigration
Lauren Berkowitz and AILA member Jonathan Grode discuss the impending U.S. Supreme Court decision in United States v. Texas, a politically charged case that raises important questions about the scope of the President’s authority to enforce U.S. immigration laws.
TRAC Report Finds Odds of Being Ordered Deported in Immigration Court Have Fallen
A TRAC report found that, so far in FY2016, the odds that a noncitizen will be ordered deported by an immigration judge have fallen to 42.4 percent, which is the lowest level since at least FY1998, according to the most recent data available from the Immigration Court.
CA3 Says Special Courts-Martial Convictions Constitute Aggravated Felonies Under the INA
The court dismissed the petition for review for lack of jurisdiction, finding that convictions by special courts-martial are convictions for purposes of INA §101(a)(48)(A), and that petitioner was removable for having committed an aggravated felony (Gourzong v. Att'y Gen., 6/14/16)
CA9 Grants Rehearing En Banc in Case Involving HIV-Positive Asylum Seeker from Mexico
The court granted rehearing en banc to revisit its prior decision upholding BIA's denial of asylum, withholding of removal, and CAT relief to petitioner, a citizen of Mexico who had sought relief based on his sexual orientation and HIV-positive status. (Bringas-Rodriguez v. Lynch, 6/14/16)
BIA Finds EWI Not Inadmissible Due to Subsequent Parole From Within Country
Unpublished BIA decision holds that respondent who entered the country without inspection before being paroled to testify in criminal prosecution was not inadmissible under INA 212(a)(6)(A)(i) nor ineligible to adjust status under INA 245(a). Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Mora, 6/14/16)
BIA Says Respondent with PTSD Established Extraordinary Circumstances for Delay in Filing Asylum Application
Unpublished BIA decision finds that the IJ erred in concluding that respondent, whose PTSD was repeatedly triggered and exacerbated, did not demonstrate extraordinary circumstances sufficient to excuse the one-year asylum filing deadline. Courtesy of Ann Wennerstrom. (Matter of –, 6/14/16)
DHS CRCL FY2015 Annual Report to Congress
DHS CRCL FY2015 Annual Report to Congress detailing CRCL’s priorities and activities in FY2015, including preventing terrorism and enhancing security, securing and managing U.S. borders, and enforcing and administering U.S. immigration laws.
CA1 Upholds Denial of Chinese Asylum Applicants’ Second Motion to Reopen
The court denied the petition for review, concluding that the BIA did not abuse its discretion in holding that the petitioners failed to make an adequate showing of a material change in country circumstances, and thus that their second motion to reopen was time-barred. (Chen v. Lynch, 6/9/16)
CA3 Says PA Conviction for Making Terroristic Threats Is Categorically a Crime Involving Moral Turpitude
The court held that petitioner’s Pennsylvania conviction for making terroristic threats was categorically a crime of moral turpitude, because a threat communicated with a specific intent to terrorize is an act “accompanied by a vicious motive or a corrupt mind.” (Javier v. Att'y Gen, 6/9/16)
BIA Finds There Is No Duress Exception to the “Material Support Bar”
The BIA held that the “material support bar” in INA §212(a)(3)(B)(iv)(VI) does not include an implied exception for a noncitizen who has provided material support to a terrorist organization under duress. Matter of M-H-Z-, 26 I&N Dec. 757 (BIA 2016)