Blocking Sweeping Immigration Appeals Rule That Eliminates Meaningful Judicial Review

On February 6, 2026, the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) issued an Interim Final Rule (IFR), Appellate Procedures for the Board of Immigration Appeals, set to take effect on March 9, 2026, that would effectively eliminate meaningful appellate review before the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).

The IFR imposes changes that would destroy noncitizens’ right to appeal decisions in their immigration cases, including:

• Reduce the time to file most appeals from 30 days to 10 days;
• Require summary dismissal of appeals unless a majority of permanent BIA members vote within 10 days to accept the case for review;
• Permit dismissal decisions before transcripts are created or records are transmitted;
• Impose simultaneous 20-day briefing schedules with extensions allowed only in narrow “exceptional circumstances”;
• Eliminate reply briefs unless specifically invited; and
• Impose rigid case completion deadlines and concentrate decision-making authority in agency leadership.

On February 26, 2026, Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, Brooklyn Defender Services, Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, HIAS, the American Immigration Council, and National Immigrant Justice Center filed a lawsuit and motion for preliminary relief to block the IFR from taking effect and to keep it blocked while the litigation proceeds. Democracy Forward, Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, and National Immigration Justice Center represent the plaintiffs.

According to the filings, the IFR was issued without the required notice-and-comment rulemaking period and fundamentally restructures appellate review in removal proceedings. Plaintiffs argue that by requiring summary dismissal unless the full BIA acts within 10 days, and before transcripts are created, the rule makes meaningful review functionally impossible in most cases.

Plaintiffs argue the rule violates the Administrative Procedure Act, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the Fifth Amendment, which protects people from deprivation of liberty without due process of law.

On March 8, 2026, the District Court converted our motion to stay into a motion for summary judgment and granted it, blocking significant pieces of the Trump-Vance administration’s new policy that sought to eliminate meaningful appellate review before the BIA.