{"id":22650,"date":"2020-03-19T17:11:33","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T21:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=22650"},"modified":"2020-03-19T17:11:37","modified_gmt":"2020-03-19T21:11:37","slug":"immigration-courts-legal-fees-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/03\/19\/immigration-courts-legal-fees-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"New BIA Filing Fee More than Reasonable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At the end of last month, the Executive Office for Immigration Review<\/a> (EOIR), proposed an updated fee schedule that would require aliens subject to deportation orders to pay $1,000 to file an appeal. EOIR is the agency that oversees both the Immigration Court and the Board of Immigration appeals.) This action has provoked criticism from the open borders contingent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the New York Times<\/a><\/em>, the proposed fee hike is, \u201ca nearly tenfold increase that immigration lawyers warn could make deportation appeals much more difficult to pursue.\u201d But such assertions inevitably raise the question, why should the United States be making it easier for deported aliens to appeal their removal? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So why should American taxpayers be shouldering\nlegal costs for foreigners who, more than likely, have no case? The short\nanswer to that question is, they shouldn\u2019t be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strangely, in an age driven by quantitative metrics<\/a>, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) doesn\u2019t publish any statistics indicating how the percentage of deported aliens who ultimately choose to challenge their removal. We do know, however, that U.S. Immigration Court \u201ccompletes<\/a>\u201d around 260,000 cases per year. And, according to calculations made by the Center for Immigration Studies<\/a>, about 180,000 of those \u201ccompletions\u201d are deportation orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research<\/a> conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Center for State Courts indicates that roughly fifteen percent of civil trial decisions are appealed. Presuming that statistic holds true in the immigration context, approximately 27,000 deported aliens file an appeal with the BIA each year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those appeals, in turn, would generate just shy of $3 million in filing fees. However, the EOIR annual budget<\/a> \u2013 which covers the operating costs for both the U.S. Immigration Court and the BIA \u2013 hovers around $500 million. And that means that aliens subject to deportation from the United States are defraying very little of the financial burden associated with appealing their cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The purpose of court filing fees is to make sure that litigants are bearing at least some of the costs<\/a> connected with bringing their cases to court.  Litigants appealing decisions rendered by the federal courts currently pay a base filing fee of $505. Searches of court records, copies of documents and use of video equipment to conduct oral arguments all trigger additional fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, the present BIA filing fee is a mere\n$110.  Unless a transcript of the\noriginal Immigration Court hearing is required, no other fees are charged. And\nthe fees for filings before the BIA have not kept pace with the costs of\nprocessing claims. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than serving as a bar to deported\naliens filing appeals, the proposed BIA fee increase is a long overdue attempt\nto place the costs of removal where they really belong \u2013 on the foreign\nnationals who broke our immigration laws. It still doesn\u2019t shift the majority\nof the cost for immigration appeals to deported aliens but it is a step in the\nright direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the end of last month, the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), proposed an updated fee schedule that would require aliens subject to deportation orders to pay $1,000 to file an appeal. EOIR is the agency that oversees both the Immigration Court and the Board of Immigration appeals.) This action has provoked criticism from<\/p>\n

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