NDPA Superstar Liz Gibson (“The Gibson Report”) sends this item:
From: Beth Goldman <BGoldman@nylag.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2022 11:03 AM
To: NYLAG All <nylagall@nylag.org>
Subject: Victory for Immigrants and Their Advocates!
All,
I am proud to share that NYLAG and co-counsel Public Citizen reached a historic settlement in NYLAG v. Board of Immigration Appeals (18 Civ. 9495 (S.D.N.Y.)). Under the settlement entered last night, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) will for the first time make the vast majority of its decisions available to the public by publishing them online, helping to level the playing field for immigrants.
NYLAG brought this case to challenge the BIA’s longstanding failure to make its judicial decisions publicly available, which meant that neither immigrants nor their attorneys could access these crucial documents to help them defend their cases and seek relief. This gave an unfair advantage to the government’s lawyers, who could access these same decisions to advocate for removal of NYLAG’s clients and immigrants across the country, in proceedings already stacked against them. To challenge this practice, NYLAG made a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that BIA post all of its final orders in immigration cases in its electronic reading room– which FOIA has required since 1996 for all federal agencies.
Last February, NYLAG and co-counsel Public Citizen won a critical victory in the case, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that people can sue to enforce the FOIA requirement that federal agencies post certain documents online so that they are accessible to the public.
Last night, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York approved the settlement agreement between NYLAG and the BIA, under which the BIA has agreed to place nearly all its opinions into an online reading room. This will ensure that immigrants and immigration advocates across the country (including NYLAG’s own Immigrant Protection Unit’s staff and clients) will have access to these opinions within six months of when they are issued. The Board also must post prior decisions dating back to 2016.
This victory is a testament to NYLAG’s ability to create large-scale change. Kudos to the NYLAG attorneys involved in this case – Danielle Tarantolo, Jessica Ranucci, and Jane Stevens (before her retirement) of SLU; and Jodi Ziesemer and Melissa Chua of IPU –and our dedicated co-counsel at Public Citizen. This victory could not have been achieved without their partnership, diligence, and hard work.
Beth
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Congrats to all concerned! As noted in Beth Goldman’s last paragraph, while Garland has been reluctant to make progressive changes and to bring much needed management and substantive reforms to EOIR, advocacy groups have been able to force some systemic improvements through litigation.
It seems like a wise AG would “clean out the deadwood” @ EOIR and bring in dynamic experts who can solve problems and make the necessary changes to restore due process to his ridiculously broken system. But, that apparently would be an AG “other than Garland.”
🇺🇸Due Process Forever!
PWS
02-10-22