American Immigration Council: DOJ Moves to End Administrative Immigration Appeals to Speed Up Mass Deportations
The American Immigration Council critically assesses a Department of Justice (DOJ) interim final rule issued on February 6 that will effectively end appellate review of many immigration court decisions. The rule goes into effect March 9. Many appeals before the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) will be summarily dismissed going forward.
The Council summarizes recent actions by the administration:
"Since January 2025, the DOJ has taken significant steps to weaken the immigration court system. It has fired more than 100 immigration judges, reduced the BIA from 28 members to 15, and dismissed nine BIA members appointed by the Biden administration. The BIA has issued more than 70 new precedential decisions, the vast majority of which resulted in a negative outcome for the noncitizen facing removal. It has also made it easier to appoint temporary immigration judges without prior immigration law experience and has pressured immigration judges to dismiss cases so the Department of Homeland Security can reroute individuals into fast-track deportation processes. Likewise, it often denies bond for noncitizens arrested by ICE, despite federal court rulings to the contrary, keeping more people detained unnecessarily."
According to the American Immigration Council, "the new BIA interim final rule seems tailor-made to advance the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. It marks a fundamental shift away from appellate review as a meaningful safeguard from errors and further erodes the limited due process protections that remain in the immigration court system, all with a clear goal of accelerating removals."
What the Interim Rule Does
The interim rule generally reduces the time in which noncitizens must file an appeal of an immigration judge’s decision to the BIA from 30 days to just 10 days.
Under the interim rule, the BIA’s default practice will be to immediately dismiss nearly all of them unless a majority of the BIA’s 15 members determine they want to consider the case and not simply dismiss it.
"Lastly, the rule further limits appellate review by drastically curtailing briefing opportunities. Among other things, it imposes simultaneous briefing in non-detained cases and prohibits `reply briefs,' both of which will prevent parties from providing meaningful replies to the opposing party’s arguments."
