Executive Office for Immigration Review

The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) is a part of the United States Department of Justice. Its main job is to hold special court hearings called removal proceedings in immigration courts. These hearings help decide if people in the United States can stay or need to leave.

EOIR also looks at appeals, which are requests to change the decision made in these hearings. These appeals are handled in three special centers.

As of January 19, 2023, there were sixty-eight immigration courts and three adjudication centers all across the United States. These courts and centers work to make sure that decisions about who can stay in the country are fair and follow the rules.

History and jurisdiction

The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) was created in 1983 by the Department of Justice. Before that, its jobs were spread across different groups. The first group for immigration help was the Immigration and Naturalization Service, started in 1933 under the Department of Labor. It moved to the Department of Justice in 1940. In 1952, important immigration rules were collected into one law, and special officers—called immigration judges—were assigned to decide who could be sent away from the United States.

EOIR handles cases using many immigration laws and rules, such as the:

• Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952
• Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
• Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986
• United States Refugee Act of 1980
• Immigration Act of 1990
• Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act of 1996
• Real ID Act of 2005

Federal courts also help shape immigration rules, and different parts of the country can have different rules even though the highest court, the Supreme Court, can review decisions. Other laws, even those not directly about immigration, can affect who is allowed into the United States, including rules about public benefits.

Structure

Within the Department of Justice, EOIR is one of several offices that report directly to the Deputy Attorney General. EOIR has two main leaders: a director, chosen by the Attorney General, and a deputy director who can act with the full power of the director.

The Office of the Chief Immigration Judge (OCIJ) manages trial-level immigration judges. These judges are appointed by the attorney general and supervised by the EOIR director. They handle hearings to decide if people should be removed from the United States. Unlike regular judges, immigration judges do not have lifetime positions and are not appointed by the President or confirmed by the Senate.

The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) allows people to appeal decisions made by immigration judges. It has 21 members appointed by the attorney general and usually reviews cases by looking at papers instead of holding live meetings. The BIA can make final decisions, send cases back to immigration judges, or refer them to the attorney general.

The Office for the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (OCAHO) oversees special administrative law judges. These judges handle cases about employment for people who are not citizens and other related matters.

The Office of General Counsel (OGC) gives legal advice and represents EOIR in federal court. The Office of Policy, created in 2017, helps with communications, collecting data, and reviewing rules but does not handle legal cases.

Criticism and controversies

The way the Attorney General uses past decisions has been questioned. Some people think this approach doesn't follow normal agency rules, deals with issues that aren't important to the current case, and changes legal rules in unexpected ways.

The office has also been criticized for having a large number of unfinished immigration cases. As of December 2020, there were over 1.2 million cases waiting to be handled. In 2018, rules were put in place requiring immigration judges to finish 700 cases each year, meaning they needed to close more than two cases every single day. The leader of the National Association of Immigration Judges said this was unfair and hurt the court's good reputation.

Reports found that some leaders in hiring for immigration judges made inappropriate comments about female candidates. There were also stories about judges and supervisors treating people poorly, and the office didn't always handle these situations correctly. Later reports showed that these problems happened more often than first thought.

In February 2024, it was reported that the Department of Justice paid money to settle a claim about unfair treatment by a leader among the immigration judges. This followed several findings that some judges did not follow the rules about treating everyone fairly.