Court rules that BIA appeals can be released.
March 4, 2021
A court ruled that the New York Legal Assistance Group, which helps low-income clients in immigration proceedings, can continue with its suit seeking access to non-precedential opinions of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). The group wanted access to all “unpublished opinions” issued by BIA since 1996. However, a federal district court dismissed the suit because the Freedom of Information Act’s (FOIA) remedial provision lets courts order agencies to give documents to the complainant, but not to the public.
That ruling has since been reversed by the Second Circuit, but more aspects of the case remain undecided. Specifically, the court has not yet ruled on whether the BIA’s non-precedential order are outside the scope of FOIA’s “public inspection” language.