Washington, D.C. (November 14, 2023) – The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) submitted a comment opposing the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR)’s proposal to expand immigration judges’ and the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) authority to administratively close, terminate, or dismiss cases in removal proceedings. The proposal would also repeal numerous regulatory provisions issued under the Trump administration that reduced unnecessary delays in immigration court adjudications generally.

Elizabeth Jacobs, the Center’s director of regulatory affairs and policy and author of the comment, said, “The immigration courts’ overall backlog stands at more than 2.2 million cases, a 1060% increase since 2008. These extreme backlogs not only are eroding the credibility of our immigration system but the backlogs, themselves, encourage additional illegal immigration to the United States by ensuring that even those aliens who meet the Biden administration’s narrow enforcement priorities are, nevertheless, provided the opportunity to live in the United States for numerous years – longer than nearly all nonimmigrant visa categories’ periods of validity.”

CIS recommendations include:

• DOJ should delay issuance of this proposal until it makes relevant information available to the public by updating data. Without such information, the public lacks the information necessary to properly analyze the impact the regulation will have on the immigration system or understand how these authorities will be used by EOIR adjudicators.
• DOJ’s proposal to expand EOIR adjudicators’ authorities to administratively close, terminate, or dismiss cases in removal proceedings are overbroad and bad policy. Expanding these authorities will reduce credibility in the immigration system, increase the courts’ overall backlogs, and allow aliens without any lawful immigration status to continue to live in the United States indefinitely in “legal limbo” without a final disposition on their case.
• Given the historic backlogs, EOIR should adopt simultaneous briefing schedules for both detained and non-detained cases. Expanding simultaneous briefing schedules to all cases will give the BIA another tool to address its historic backlog without undermining due process.
• EOIR should impose firmer deadlines for background check requirements. As explained in detail in the comment, implementing additional measures to promote efficiency in the adjudication process is of utmost importance.
• DOJ has an obligation to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires agencies to conduct an Environmental Assessment and an Environmental Impact Statement for major federal actions for which it is reasonably foreseeable that the human environment will be impacted. DOJ failed to cite an exception to NEPA when issuing this proposal.