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
AILA Member Talking Points on the ICE Raids Targeting Central American Families
AILA members can use these Talking Points with media when asked about ICE raids targeting Central American families.
CA9 Upholds CAT Denial to Former Gang Member Who Had Been Removed to El Salvador
The court upheld BIA’s denial of CAT protection, holding that substantial evidence supported its determination that it is not more likely than not that the petitioner, a former gang member with gang-related tattoos, will be tortured in El Salvador. (Del Cid Marroquin v. Lynch, 5/18/16)
AILA Quicktake #166: ICE Announces New Surge of Arrests
AILA's Director of Advocacy Greg Chen shares information regarding ICE's announcement that it would be conducting another surge of arrests aimed at families and unaccompanied minors across the nation and what AILA is doing.
AIM: How Cities and Immigration Collaboratives Can Work Together
In May's AILA Interview of the Month, Ana Camila Herrera, Managing Attorney, Dolores Street Community Services, shares how renewed funding for the San Francisco Immigration Legal Defense Collaborative will help provide representation to unaccompanied minors and families in immigration court.
Letter to ICE from 69 Mothers Detained in Dilley Pleading for Freedom
Pleading for an end to their imprisonment, 69 mothers who have been detained with their children at the South Texas Family Residential Center, an immigration detention facility in Dilley, Texas, wrote a public letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement; letter is available in Spanish and English.
Children in Immigration Court: Over 95 Percent Represented by an Attorney Appear in Court
An American Immigration Council factsheet demonstrating that children appear in immigration court and that when children are represented by counsel, appearance rates are even higher. This data suggests that children who do fail to appear are victims of the system’s deficits.
Detained, Deceived, and Deported: Experiences of Recently Deported Central American Families
The American Immigration Council interviewed individuals who were deported (or whose partners were deported) and their accounts reveal the dangerous circumstances these women and their children faced upon return to their home countries, as well as serious problems in the deportation process.
FOIA Results on Bond Practices
Bond-related documents from ERO and Libre by Nexus (private ankle monitoring/GPS devices) released in response to a FOIA. Special thanks to Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg.
TRAC Report Finds Number of Civil Immigration Lawsuits Filed Has Risen Steadily During Past Year
A TRAC report found that the government reported 235 new civil filings in the immigration category in April 2016, a 37.7 percent increase from one year ago. The data shows that civil immigration filings are up approximately 30 percent from levels reported five years ago, in April 2011.
EOIR Opens Immigration Court in Aurora, CO
EOIR announced that it will be establishing a full-time presence and opening an immigration court in the DHS contract detention facility in Aurora, Colorado on 5/31/16. Notice includes contact information.
CA7 Finds Petitioner Is Not Eligible for Velasquez Exception to Lawyer’s Concessions
The court upheld the BIA where the petitioner’s first lawyer had conceded that petitioner’s 1993 California conviction for possessing counterfeit prescription blanks was a CIMT, and his second lawyer did not ask the BIA to relieve him of that concession. (Guzman-Rivadeneira v. Lynch, 5/13/16)
Practice Alert: Military Parole in Place and Removal Proceedings
AILA’s ICE Liaison Committee provides a practice alert advising members of the procedure for seeking military parole in place if your client is currently in removal proceedings or previously has been ordered removed from the United States.
CA9 Remands Where BIA Failed to Address IJ’s Seemingly Inconsistent Credibility Findings
The court held that the BIA erred in failing to address the IJ’s seemingly inconsistent credibility findings where the petitioner was charged as removable under INA §212(a)(6)(E)(i) for allegedly participating in an alien smuggling attempt. (Perez-Arceo v. Lynch, 5/12/16)
CARA: Government Continues to Undermine Access to Counsel and Due Process for Children and Mothers Seeking Protection in the U.S.
The CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project shared additional evidence that the federal government and private prison companies are failing to provide child care adequate to ensure access to counsel and meaningful representation as a Texas agency considers licensing the Dilley center.
AILA: Shameful Escalation of ICE Raids is Misdirected at Vulnerable Families and Engenders a Culture of Fear
Responding to confirmed reports that immigration authorities are planning another surge of arrests aimed at families and unaccompanied children across the nation, AILA President Victor Nieblas Pradis joined AILA Executive Director Benjamin Johnson in condemning the raids.
BIA Cautions IJs over Finding Relief Applications Abandoned
Unpublished BIA decision states that while immigration judges may deem applications abandoned if not timely submitted, such decisions must be balanced against due process concerns that respondents have a full and fair hearing. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Ramirez Ramos, 5/12/16)
BIA Dismisses Fraud-Related Aggravated Felony Charge
Unpublished BIA decision terminates proceedings because the evidence did not demonstrate that a restitution order exceeding $10,000 related to an offense involving fraud or deceit or to a separate conviction for grand theft. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Acevedo Solis, 5/11/16)
CA9 Says It Lacks Jurisdiction to Review BIA’s Discretionary Denial of NACARA Special Rule Cancellation
The court granted the Attorney General’s motion to dismiss the petition for review, holding that it lacked jurisdiction pursuant to INA §242(a)(2)(B)(i) to review the BIA’s discretionary denial of NACARA special rule cancellation of removal. (Monroy v. Lynch, 5/11/16)
CA1 Finds BIA Failed to Explain Why It Found That VAWA Relief Required Good Faith Marriage
The court held that the BIA failed to articulate a sufficient explanation as to why it determined that the petitioner was required to prove that hers was a good faith marriage in order to be eligible for VAWA relief. (Tillery v. Lynch, 5/11/16)
CA1 Finds Petitioner’s Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Claim Did Not Comply with Lozada Requirements
The court dismissed in part and denied in part the petition for review, holding that there is no “plain on the face of the administrative record” exception in favor of a case-by-case assessment of whether BIA’s application of Matter of Lozada was arbitrary. (García v. Lynch, 5/9/16)
USCIS Comment Period on Form I-191
USCIS 60-day notice of a comment request period on proposed revisions to the Application for Relief Under Former Section 212(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (Form I-191). Comments are due by 7/8/16. (81 FR 28097, 5/9/16)
AILA Amicus to BIA on Prostitution as a CIMT
The AILA Amicus Committee filed an amicus brief with the BIA, arguing that simple prostitution is not categorically a crime involving moral turpitude (CIMT).
BIA Says Circumstance-Specific Approach Applies to Limiting Components of INA §101(a)(43)(T)
The BIA held that the circumstance-specific approach is the appropriate inquiry for assessing the limiting components of INA §101(a)(43)(T), which defines aggravated felony “failure to appear” convictions. Matter of Garza-Olivares, 26 I&N Dec. 736 (BIA 2016)
AILA Quicktake #165: Texas Approves Karnes Childcare License
AILA member and head of the immigration clinic at the University of Texas Law School Denise Gilman shares news of the Texas Department of Family Services' decision to approve the Karnes City, Texas, application to be a licensed childcare facility and what AILA members can do.
CA7 Finds INA §242(a)(2)(C) Limits Its Jurisdiction to Review Petitioner’s Claims
The court held that the IJ and BIA properly found that the petitioner, who was convicted of burglary in Illinois, was convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude (CIMT), and thus that INA §242(a)(2)(C) applied and limited the court’s scope of review. (Dominguez-Pulido v. Lynch, 5/5/16)