government illegals

FOIA documents

Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR)

Executive Office of Immigration Review, Department of Justice. Review Procedures for Constituting the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) Panels and Decisions,
354 pages.
Released to Stevens under the FOIA on April 20, 2011.  Includes email traffic on Haiti.  

Executive Office of Immigration, Department of Justice.  Procedures for Determining Awards for EOIR Staff, Including Adjudicators (Immigration Judges), 2010 16 pages.
Released to Stevens under the FOIA on September 29, 2010.

Executive Office of Immigration Review, Department of Justice.  Performance Awards for Individual Employees, FY2008, FY2009, and year to date 2010.
213 pages.
Released to Stevens under the FOIA on September 29, 2010.

Executive Office of Immigration Review, BIA Appeals by party (DHS or immigrant) and detained status, released to Stevens by Office of Public and Legislative Affairs, March, 2009.

The BIA issues decisions that are signed by BIA "judges," i.e., attorney adjudicators employed by the EOIR.  The fact that BIA decision are signed, typically by one to three BIA adjudicators, suggests that these are the individuals who evaluated the merits of the appeals submitted by either the respondent or the DHS attorneys.  In fact, drafts of these decisions are initiated and written in their entirety by panels of EOIR attorneys, and then sent to the BIA "judges" on bond paper without any input from the folks whose imprimatur suggests they initiated the legal reasoning the decisions contain.  Both the attorneys on the BIA panels and the adjudicators are evaluated on the basis of their productivity; thus the adjudicators face resistance if they request too many changes or disagree with the panel conclusions.

For partial analysis and description of panels, please see the October 20, 2010 post on States Without Nations.

Kudos to the EOIR for releasing additional information about the BIA appeal procedures on its own website, also in April, 2011!  Since the fall, 2010 the EOIR website has been releasing much more information than it has in the past, although it still needs  work.  Why not provide the public the names and bios of the BIA judges?  

Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR)

OPR Immigration Judge Misconduct Reports and Findings, 2009-2010

OPR Investigative Report on Immigration Judge, March 29, 2010

Mary Patrice Brown, Acting Director, OPR to Thomas Snow, Acting Director, EOIR, Memorandum March 19, 2010

OPR Investigative Report on Immigration Judge, March 19, 2010

Mary Patrice Brown, Acting Director, OPR to Thomas Snow, Acting Director EOIR, Memorandum Jaunuary 8, 2010

OPR Investigative Report on Immigration Judge, January 8, 2010

Mary Patrice Brown, Acting Director, OPR to Thomas Snow, Acting Director, EOIR, Memorandum January 6, 2010

OPR Investigative Report on Immigration Judge, January 6, 2010

Mary Patrice Brown, Acting Director, OPR to Thomas Snow, Acting Director, EOIR, Memorandum, September 28, 2009

OPR Investigative Report on Immigration Judge, September 28, 2009

Initial FOIA request for decisions of misconduct for immigration judges, sent to Executive Office of Immigration Review, DOJ, November 4, 2009

FOIA appeal after EOIR denies request by asserting privacy exemption, sent to OIP,  March 3, 2010

OIP Remand Instructing OPR to comply with FOIA request, April 9, 2010

Appeal After OPR Stonewalls, August  9, 2010