Groups File Immigration 'Rocket Docket' FOIA Lawsuit Against Feds

CNS, Feb. 3, 2016 - "The Department of Justice makes it harder for vulnerable children and families to avoid deportation by hiding its priority immigration docketing policies from the public, the American Immigration Lawyers Association claims in court.  Joined by three other legal groups, the AILA sued the Justice Department and the Executive Office for Immigration Review on Tuesday in Federal Court, for failing to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request for records on policies that govern a new immigration "rocket docket" program.  The Executive Office for Immigration Review, or EOIR, oversees immigration courts and judges and the Board of Immigration Appeals.  The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area - the lead plaintiff - says the dearth of information makes navigating the new system nearly impossible for newly arrived immigrant children, families and their attorneys."

LCCR, Feb. 2, 2016 - "The organizations filing the FOIA lawsuit are: the American Immigration Lawyers Association; the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS) at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law; Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, and Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto (CLSEPA). Attorney Thomas Burke of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, the Stanford Law School Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, and attorneys at CGRS, LCCR, and CLSEPA are co-counsel in this lawsuit."

Complaint and Exhibits A through E here.