NPR: The New Immigration Court Buildings
NPR has a fascinating story about new immigration courts that have been popping up in the DC metro. Noncitizens who had been scheduled to appear in long-standing immigration courtrooms have been sent--often with little or no notice and in contravention of EOIR policy--to area buildings without immigration court infrastructure. One immigration lawyer described arriving with her client at one of these facilities only to experience a remote appearance by the IJ and OPLA.
Attorneys told NPR that the change-of-venue notices have been directed at unrepresented respondents. And there is speculation that the change is an effort to ramp up in absentia orders.
