IMMIGRATION APPEAL PROCESS
Appeals are sometimes necessary if a person disagrees with a judge’s order of deportation or removal from the United States. Decisions of the Executive Office forImmigration Review (EOIR or Immigration Court) can be appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA or Board) which is part of the Department of Justice.
Unfortunately, due to streamlining efforts by the Department of Justice, and in order to eliminate the backlog of pending appeals, the level of review that a case receives upon review by the BIA is minimal at best. Many decisions come back basically "rubber stamped" in what the BIA calls a "summary affirmance without opinion" of the Immigration Judge’s opinion. They provide no reasoning for their decisions except to say they agree with the Immigration Judge. This lack of feedback makes it difficult for aliens to properly appeal the reasoning of the denial of their cases.
If an alien loses his appeal at the BIA level, he now leaves the Department of Justice system and would appeal to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals for relief. California, where our office is located, belongs to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. In comparison to many other circuit courts, the 9th Circuit Court is more amenable to immigration appeals and decisions favorable to aliens are sometimes obtained.
Appeal work requires extremely thorough knowledge of immigration law including the regulations but most importantly, the ever-changing case law. Our office has many published decisions because of the thorough work that we do to develop the legal intricacies of each case. Many other immigration firms send cases to us for our opinion of the strength of aliens’ appeals. Most if not all of our appeal clients come from other offices (usually the non-lawyer unauthorized practitioners of law) once they realize that their case is about to be finally denied.
If a case is lost at the Federal Circuit Court level, sometimes it may be appropriate to ask for a Rehearing or Rehearing En Banc. Rarely, the United States Supreme Court accepts immigration cases for review and consideration .
Unfortunately, due to streamlining efforts by the Department of Justice, and in order to eliminate the backlog of pending appeals, the level of review that a case receives upon review by the BIA is minimal at best. Many decisions come back basically "rubber stamped" in what the BIA calls a "summary affirmance without opinion" of the Immigration Judge’s opinion. They provide no reasoning for their decisions except to say they agree with the Immigration Judge. This lack of feedback makes it difficult for aliens to properly appeal the reasoning of the denial of their cases.
If an alien loses his appeal at the BIA level, he now leaves the Department of Justice system and would appeal to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals for relief. California, where our office is located, belongs to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. In comparison to many other circuit courts, the 9th Circuit Court is more amenable to immigration appeals and decisions favorable to aliens are sometimes obtained.
Appeal work requires extremely thorough knowledge of immigration law including the regulations but most importantly, the ever-changing case law. Our office has many published decisions because of the thorough work that we do to develop the legal intricacies of each case. Many other immigration firms send cases to us for our opinion of the strength of aliens’ appeals. Most if not all of our appeal clients come from other offices (usually the non-lawyer unauthorized practitioners of law) once they realize that their case is about to be finally denied.
If a case is lost at the Federal Circuit Court level, sometimes it may be appropriate to ask for a Rehearing or Rehearing En Banc. Rarely, the United States Supreme Court accepts immigration cases for review and consideration .