Abstract
In 2002, Attorney General John Ashcroft authorized "streamlining" regulations aimed at reducing a backlog of immigration appeals within the Department of Homeland Security. One of the most significant changes allowed single members of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) to issue affirmances of lower immigration judges (IJ) without issuing a written opinion, giving the immigrants no explanation for the BIA's decision. Federal Circuit Courts are being bombarded with appeals from the BIA, effectively shifting the BIA backlog to the federal courts. One-sentence affirmances without opinion leave immigrants feeling like they did not have a hearing on the merits of their claim at the appellate level. As a policy-matter, and as a value judgment from a "nation of immigrants," the regulations themselves must be examined not just in terms of what rights can be afforded to immigrants, but what rights should be afforded to them.
Recommended Citation
Jessica Rees,
To Decide or Not to Decide: Is That the Question? Jurisdiction of Immigration Appeals in Kambolli v. Gonzales, 449 F.3d 454 (2d Cir. 2006),
32
S. Ill. U. L.J.
773
(2008).
Available at:
https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/siulj/vol32/iss3/17