Due Process and the Courts

Our legal system rests upon the principle that everyone is entitled to due process of law and a meaningful opportunity to be heard. But for far too long, the immigration system has failed to provide noncitizens with a system of justice that lives up to this standard. Learn about ways in which the immigration system could ensure that all noncitizens have a fair day in court.  

Recent Features

All Due Process and the Courts Content

Publication Date: 
October 2, 2024
The mass deportation of millions of undocumented individuals would be tremendously expensive and would have a catastrophic impact on our economy—one that would be expansive and impact every American...
Publication Date: 
November 29, 2021
The Institutional Hearing Program permits immigration judges to conduct removal proceedings for noncitizens serving criminal sentences in certain correctional facilities.
Publication Date: 
August 23, 2021
Over the last two decades, the federal government increasingly has utilized the criminal courts to punish people for immigration violations. This overview provides basic information about entry-...
Publication Date: 
June 8, 2021
The Council expressed concerns about the Biden administration's plans for a new type of expedited asylum proceedings.
Publication Date: 
May 20, 2021
This report analyzes the Biden administration's 100 days progress in reforming immigration enforcement and recommendations for how to best move forward.
Publication Date: 
February 26, 2021
This fact sheet draws from original data gathered from hundreds of community-organizations around the country and provides a snapshot of the extent of available services that help migrants navigate...
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January 28, 2021
This analysis of data provided by the federal government reveals that 83% of all nondetained immigrants with completed or pending removal cases attended all their hearings from 2008 to 2018.
Publication Date: 
October 6, 2020
This fact sheet provides an overview of withholding of removal, including the basics of seeking protection in the United States, eligibility requirements, the application process, and data on...
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July 30, 2019
Comprehensive analyses of the government’s own data show that in the vast majority of situations, immigrants placed into removal proceedings appear for all of their court hearings.
Publication Date: 
September 6, 2018
The Legal Orientation Program (LOP) offers legal education, as well as referrals for free and low-cost legal counsel, to noncitizens in immigration detention.
The American Immigration Council filed requests for records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to learn about the process migrants go through after they are interdicted by U.S. Coast Guard personnel.
The Council seeks records from immigration courts about how they process record requests and comply with proactive disclosure requirements. This information will help advocates ensure that noncitizens in removal proceedings have access to their records and that the courts are complying with record disclosure requirements.
We’re suing Iowa for a new law that criminalizes anyone who has reentered the state after being deported — including children — even if that person is now authorized to be in the U.S. This is the most extreme anti-immigrant law in the state’s history.
This nationwide class action lawsuit challenges systemic delays in providing immigration files.
Publication Date: 
March 28, 2024
The American Immigration Council filed an Amicus Brief with the American Immigration Lawyers Association to challenge the government's theory that judicial review is never available when a consular officer decides to deny a visa application.
This FOIA suit seeks to compel EOIR to provide information about the immigration courts’ practice of advancing the date of immigrants’ hearings without much notice to them or their attorneys.
This case challenges the punitive practice of keeping asylum seekers in custody for weeks or months without access to credible fear interviews or bond hearings and the lack of basic procedural protections—like hearing transcripts and written decisions—in bond hearings, as well as whether asylum seekers must bear the burden of proof in bond proceedings.
Publication Date: 
April 14, 2023
In this amicus brief the Council urges the Supreme Court to correct the BIA's mistake in not applying that criminal "rule of lenity" when interpreting the aggravated felony deportation ground.
November 2, 2022

The American Immigration Council joined a team of nonprofits across the country to write a letter to Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) Director Robin Dunn Marcos to express concern over lack of...

This Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeks records from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) about its practice of moving up the date of immigrants’ individual hearings with little to no notice to their lawyers.
Publication Date: 
July 29, 2024
This practice advisory by the Council and partners provides an overview of the Niz-Chavez v. Garland decision and its impact on eligibility for cancellation of removal; eligibility for post-conclusion voluntary departure and broader applications of the decision.
Publication Date: 
March 22, 2024
The practice alert explains the scope of a class settlement agreement in Padilla v. ICE that provides protections for detained asylum seekers who face prolonged delays before receiving their credible fear interviews.
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January 8, 2024
This Practice Advisory has information practitioners need to assess whether filing suit in federal court is the right option for challenging an employment-based petition denial.
Publication Date: 
November 28, 2023
This practice advisory describes some of the common tools of statutory construction to assist practitioners in advocating for narrow definitions of generic criminal removal grounds...
Publication Date: 
August 22, 2023
This practice advisory looks into the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court issued in Pugin v. Garland, 143 S. Ct. 1833 (2023). This immigration decision addressed the generic definition of the obstruction of justice aggravated felony ground at 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(S).
Publication Date: 
April 26, 2023
This Practice Advisory provides a broad overview of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), including how to make a FOIA request and how to appeal an inadequate response.
Publication Date: 
April 17, 2023
This practice advisory explains 1) the ways to submit a FOIA request for a client’s immigration records, or A-File, 2) provides suggestions for avoiding agency rejections of the requests, and 3) identifies issues related to the Nightingale injunction that class counsel are monitoring.
Publication Date: 
December 16, 2022
Practitioners who challenge delays in visa processing often face a motion to dismiss based on the consular nonreviewability doctrine. This practice tip examines the scope of the doctrine. It provides arguments, with supporting documentation, to oppose common situations that the government claims are final, nonreviewable decisions.
Publication Date: 
December 13, 2022
Our comprehensive guide on obtaining detention records provides a brief overview of FOIA requirements, information about the types of records government agencies possess, tips about how to request those records, and an overview of what to expect after submitting the request.
Publication Date: 
November 24, 2022
This Practice Advisory provides information for filing a delay action in federal district court under the Mandamus Act and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) for an asylum applicant who is awaiting an interview or a final decision on their affirmative asylum claim. It discusses the required elements of a successful APA and mandamus actions and jurisdictional hurdles. The advisory also addresses asylum-specific case law and arguments, including USCIS’s use of the “Last-In, First-Out” processing and statistics showing the growing asylum backlog.
July 11, 2024

The Supreme Court handed a momentous victory to supporters of deregulation on June 28 in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, discarding the long-standing doctrine known as Chevron deference. The...

June 28, 2024

The Supreme Court made an about-face on June 14, holding that immigration judges may order noncitizens deported if they do not appear for their immigration hearings even if the government never...

May 22, 2024

The Department of Justice asked a court to partially terminate the decades-old agreement that protects the rights of immigrant children earlier this month. The government argues that the Flores...

March 25, 2024

The Supreme Court issued an important victory for noncitizens seeking cancellation of removal and the principle of judicial review of agency action on March 19. And despite the current court’s...

January 31, 2024

Immigrants are now far more likely to face the complexities of the immigration court system alone, without an attorney. As of December 2023, only 30% of immigrants with pending cases have secured...

January 18, 2024

A new memo issued last month by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) lays out improved guidelines for immigration court cases involving children. The memo is a welcome acknowledgment...

December 15, 2023

Families are complicated. Especially during the holidays, that’s something we can all agree on. But most of us can’t – or will never have to – imagine being forcibly separated from our closest...

September 28, 2023

After weeks of failed negotiations on spending, Congress has less than a week left to avert a potential government shutdown. Members of the House Republicans’ Freedom Caucus have refused to pass...

September 14, 2023

The Department of Justice has proposed a new rule to protect immigration judges’ ability to administratively close removal proceedings and control their ever-expanding dockets. The proposed rule,...

August 30, 2023

The Biden administration’s humanitarian parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans (CHNV) went on trial last week. The trial, held in a federal court in Texas, was the...

October 24, 2024
In a New Mexico detention center, ICE categorized People with African, Asian, and South American backgrounds as racially ‘white’
October 23, 2024
In a decision issued on Oct. 23, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals largely affirmed a lower court decision that found the U.S. government's systemic practice of turning back asylum seekers ("metering") at the U.S.-Mexico border is unlawful.
October 2, 2024
A new report details the catastrophic costs of a potential mass deportation and family separation plan.
June 17, 2024
In a victory for immigrant communities and families, on June 17 a federal district court in Iowa issued a preliminary injunction to block SF 2340, one of the worst, most far-reaching immigration laws ever passed in the state of Iowa.
June 5, 2024
The U.S. government needs to be able to quickly and fairly sort out migrants who have a valid asylum claim, but instead of investing in U.S. ports of entry, immigration courts, or more options for legal migration, the order focuses on harsh and arbitrary turnbacks.
May 22, 2024
On May 22, a federal court blocked a section of a draconian anti-immigrant law passed by Govenor Ron DeSantis's government in Florida.
October 18, 2023
The American Immigration Council and the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS) have filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit to compel the Biden administration to release information on its new policy of turning back people who request asylum without first obtaining an appointment via the government’s CBP One smartphone app.
October 13, 2023
A federal court in California denied a preliminary injunction in a legal challenge to the Biden administration’s policy of turning back asylum seekers who request protection without first obtaining an appointment via the government’s CBP One smartphone app.
October 13, 2023
On October 13, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California will hear arguments in Al Otro Lado and Haitian Bridge Alliance v. Mayorkas, a federal lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s unlawful policy of turning back people seeking asylum without a CBP One appointment.
September 8, 2023
On Thursday, the Biden administration proposed to rescind a Trump administration rule that stripped authority from immigration judges to manage their own dockets; here is our response.
October 24, 2024
In a New Mexico detention center, ICE categorized People with African, Asian, and South American backgrounds as racially ‘white’
October 23, 2024
In a decision issued on Oct. 23, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals largely affirmed a lower court decision that found the U.S. government's systemic practice of turning back asylum seekers ("metering") at the U.S.-Mexico border is unlawful.
October 2, 2024
A new report details the catastrophic costs of a potential mass deportation and family separation plan.
Publication Date: 
October 2, 2024
The mass deportation of millions of undocumented individuals would be tremendously expensive and would have a catastrophic impact on our economy—one that would be expansive and impact every American...
Publication Date: 
July 29, 2024
This practice advisory by the Council and partners provides an overview of the Niz-Chavez v. Garland decision and its impact on eligibility for cancellation of removal; eligibility for post-conclusion voluntary departure and broader applications of the decision.
July 11, 2024

The Supreme Court handed a momentous victory to supporters of deregulation on June 28 in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, discarding the long-standing doctrine known as Chevron deference. The...

June 28, 2024

The Supreme Court made an about-face on June 14, holding that immigration judges may order noncitizens deported if they do not appear for their immigration hearings even if the government never...

The American Immigration Council filed requests for records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to learn about the process migrants go through after they are interdicted by U.S. Coast Guard personnel.
June 17, 2024
In a victory for immigrant communities and families, on June 17 a federal district court in Iowa issued a preliminary injunction to block SF 2340, one of the worst, most far-reaching immigration laws ever passed in the state of Iowa.
June 5, 2024
The U.S. government needs to be able to quickly and fairly sort out migrants who have a valid asylum claim, but instead of investing in U.S. ports of entry, immigration courts, or more options for legal migration, the order focuses on harsh and arbitrary turnbacks.