Federal Courts/Jurisdiction

Recent Features

  • Practice Advisories

Litigation for Business Immigration Practitioners

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.

  • Practice Advisories

Reinstatement of Removal

This practice advisory provides an overview of the reinstatement statute and implementing regulations, including how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issues and executes reinstatement orders.

All Federal Courts/Jurisdiction Content

  • Practice Advisories

Finality of Removal Orders for Judicial Review Purposes

Publication Date: 
August 5, 2008
The Immigration and Nationality Act authorizes the courts of appeals to review “final” removal orders. This Practice Advisory addresses whether a removal decision issued by an Immigration Judge or the BIA is a “final” removal order for purposes of federal court review.
  • Practice Advisories

Introduction to Habeas Corpus

Publication Date: 
June 1, 2008

This Practice Advisory offers a short introduction to habeas corpus, addressing when and how a petitioner may file a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the immigration context.

  • Practice Advisories

Suggested Strategies for Remedying Missed Petition for Review Deadlines or Filings in the Wrong Court

Publication Date: 
April 20, 2005
This Practice Advisory addresses situations in which a court might excuse a late-filed petition for review and discusses other administrative and federal court options for remedying the failure to timely file a petition for review. The Advisory also provides an overview of 28 U.S.C. § 1631, which authorizes courts to transfer a case to cure a lack of jurisdiction when an action is filed in the wrong federal court.
  • Blog

USCIS and ICE Must Give People Access to Their Immigration Files After Losing Lawsuit

December 18, 2020

People who need access to their government immigration records scored a huge victory in the Nightingale et al. v. USCIS case on December 17. A judge ruled that a nationwide class of individuals...

  • Blog

Asylum Is In Danger After Court Upholds Rushed Screening Process at the Border

December 14, 2020

The Trump administration secretly implemented one of its most horrific attacks on America’s long tradition of asylum—holding asylum seekers in U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody...

  • Blog

A Judge Fully Reinstated DACA, but Dreamers Are Still in Danger

December 7, 2020

A federal judge in New York has overturned the Trump administration’s latest effort to limit the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative. DACA temporarily protects certain people...

  • Blog

Federal Court Invalidates Changes to DACA Because Chad Wolf Was Unlawfully Appointed

November 16, 2020

A judge has ruled that recent changes to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) that were a veiled attempt to gut the program are invalid because Chad Wolf—the acting secretary of the...

  • Blog

Trump’s Public Charge Rule Blocked Yet Again in Court

November 2, 2020

Update: On November 5, the Seven Circuit Court of appeals placed an administrative stay on the district court’s ruling, restoring the public charge rule at least temporarily. The Trump...

  • Blog

Ninth Circuit Court Allows Trump’s Plan to End Temporary Protected Status to Go Forward

September 14, 2020

In a split decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Trump administration’s termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for four countries can proceed. The fate of nearly 250...

  • Blog

Legal Victory Brings Hope to Asylum Seekers Turned Away at the Border

August 12, 2020

Asylum seekers got a major win in a lawsuit challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) illegal policy of turning back asylum seekers at ports of entry. In Al Otro Lado v. Wolf, a...

  • Blog

Federal Court Strikes Down Trump’s Asylum Transit Ban in Momentous Victory

July 1, 2020

On June 30, a federal judge in the District of Columbia struck down the Trump administration’s asylum transit ban, ending a sweeping policy that had shut down asylum for most people entering the...

  • Blog

Supreme Court Limits Court Oversight for Fast-Track Deportations  

June 25, 2020

The Supreme Court ruled on June 25 that certain asylum seekers forced through a fast-track deportation process at the U.S. border, called “expedited removal,” cannot challenge their deportations...

  • Blog

Supreme Court Safeguards Federal Court Review of Torture Protections

June 4, 2020

The U.S. Supreme Court found on Monday that federal courts have the authority to review certain claims from people who are seeking protection from torture. The case, Nasrallah v. Barr, is about...

  • Press Release

Asylum Seekers File Class Action Lawsuit Against DHS

July 1, 2016
The U.S. Government has placed unnecessary hurdles in front of asylum seekers who are attempting to file asylum applications within the required time period.
  • Press Release

Federal Court Grants Class-Action Status in Challenge to Obama Administration

June 27, 2016
A federal court has granted class-action status to a lawsuit challenging the federal government's failure to provide children in immigration court with lawyers in their deportation hearings. Several thousand children are estimated to be members of the class.
  • Press Release

Court Orders Release of Some Evidence of Arizona Border Patrol Detention Facilities

June 27, 2016
A federal district court unsealed some of the photographs central to ongoing litigation challenging deplorable and unconstitutional conditions in Border Patrol detention facilities in the agency’s Tucson Sector. The court also allowed the Arizona Republic newspaper to intervene in the case to argue for the release of the documents.
  • Press Release

Supreme Court Issues Disappointing Split Decision in United States v. Texas

June 23, 2016

Washington D.C. - Today, the Supreme Court issued a 4-4 decision in United States v.

  • Press Release

Lawsuit Seeks to Shed Light on Customs and Border Protection's Complaint Process

June 6, 2016

Washington D.C.

  • Press Release

Immigration Groups Seek Information on Customs and Border Protection’s “Translation” Activities in Northern Border States

June 4, 2016
Last week an alliance of immigration advocacy groups represented by the Legal Action Center filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
  • Press Release

Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments in U.S. v. Texas

April 18, 2016

Washington D.C. - Today, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in United States v. Texas.

  • Press Release

Practice Advisory on Supreme Court’s Favorable Decision in Vartelas v. Holder

April 5, 2016

Washington, D.C.—Last week, the Supreme Court issued a decision in Vartelas v.

  • Press Release

326 Immigrant Rights Groups Urge Supreme Court to Let Immigration Relief Programs Go Forward

March 8, 2016

WASHINGTON, D.C.

  • Press Release

Administrative Appeals Office Approves National Interest Waiver for Specialty Care Physician

February 17, 2016

Washington, D.C.

  • Blog

Supreme Court Pauses Oral Arguments in Title 42 Case – What’s next?

February 17, 2023

In December 2022, the Supreme Court stepped in to keep Title 42 (the pandemic health policy that has allowed the United States to carry out over 2.5 million expulsions since March 2020) in effect...

  • Practice Advisories

Practice Tip: Opposing a Motion to Dismiss Asserting the Consular Nonreviewability Doctrine in Agency Delay Cases

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.
  • Blog

The Supreme Court Takes on Enforcement Priorities and Other Immigration Questions in Its 2022 – 2023 Term

November 30, 2022

The Supreme Court will tackle more hot button immigration issues in its 2022 – 2023 term. Front and center is the Biden administration’s effort to set immigration enforcement priorities. But the...

  • Blog

DACA Is Facing a Crisis That the Senate Can No Longer Ignore

October 7, 2022

Written by Jorge Loweree and Raul Pinto of the American Immigration Council More than a decade after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) first created the Deferred Action for Childhood...

  • Practice Advisories

Whom to Sue and Whom to Serve in Immigration-Related District Court Litigation

Publication Date: 
September 14, 2022
This Practice Advisory addresses who is, or who may be, the proper respondent-defendant and recipient for service of process in immigration-related litigation in district court.
  • Press Release

Victory as Groups Settle Lawsuit on Unlawful Detention of Unaccompanied Youth

September 8, 2022
A federal court approved a settlement agreement in a lawsuit challenging the unlawful detention of unaccompanied children who turn 18 in U.S. government custody and are transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities.
  • Blog

Supreme Court Permits Biden to Terminate ‘Remain in Mexico’ Program

June 30, 2022

Almost a year after the Supreme Court allowed a federal judge in Texas to order the Biden administration to restart the so-called “Migrant Protection Protocols” (MPP), the Supreme Court ruled in...

  • Press Release

U.S. Supreme Court Allows Biden Administration to End MPP

June 30, 2022
The U.S. Supreme Court allows the Biden administration’s efforts to terminate the Migrant Protection Protocols—an illegal Trump-era policy that sent thousands of people seeking humanitarian protection to dangerous areas of Mexico to await their asylum hearings.
  • Blog

The Supreme Court Overturning Roe v. Wade Could Have Harmful Ripple Effects for Immigrants

May 13, 2022

Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, could have damaging effects to immigrant rights secured through the courts. The...

  • Amicus Briefs

Amicus Brief Argues that Exclusionary Rule in Criminal Proceedings Should Apply to Evidence Related to Identity in Prosecutions for Illegal Reentry

Publication Date: 
March 28, 2022
In the amicus brief filed with the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, the Council argues that the exclusionary rule in criminal proceedings should apply to evidence related to identity, because it is an essential deterrent to ICE’s widespread racially discriminatory enforcement practices.

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