Submit a comment voicing your opinion before the public comment period closes on April 8, 2026.
The Trump administration is trying to dismantle the immigration appeals system to fast-track deportations and deny people their day in court. A sweeping new rule would effectively eliminate meaningful judicial review before the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), the body that Congress has mandated to review deportation orders when immigration courts get it wrong.
If you are a concerned community member:
The administration has to review each unique comment and the more they receive, the better. Your comment makes a difference!
Visit the page on Regulations.gov where the “Appellate Procedures for the Board of Immigration Appeals” rule is posted.
Click the green “Submit a public comment” button, then complete the form and use the sample comment below as a reference to copy and paste into the “comment” field. The government only reviews and counts unique comments, so please edit the sample comment with your own personal opinion and experiences. Modify the text and add your own voice to reflect your own professional expertise and personal experiences, or those of people you know, and explain why you believe the United States must offer a fair legal process.
Here’s a sample comment for you to copy and edit:
I oppose this new BIA Rule because I believe all people in the United States should have access to a fair legal process. That includes immigrants facing removal from the United States and people seeking asylum who have fled violence and come to this country in search of protection.
The ability to file an appeal is fundamental to a fair legal process. Being able to file an appeal is even more important now because it has become so difficult to get meaningful consideration from an immigration judge. This new Rule undermines this fundamental American value by imposing a deadline so short that it will be practically impossible for people to file appeals.
As a matter of fairness, filing an appeal also should not be tied to access to an attorney or the ability to pay a large sum of money within a matter of days. And appeals should be available to people imprisoned by the Department of Homeland Security because of their immigration status. But the Rule will prevent people from filing appeals if they are in immigration detention, lack an attorney, or do not have access to ready cash.
The Rule also says that the Board of Immigration Appeals won’t even review the merits of most appeals. This means that the only way to get review will be through filings in yet a different court—and people who are eligible for relief could be wrongly deported to serious harm while that court reviews the case. The government should take seriously the need to protect vulnerable people, not set up a system that deports everyone, including people with valid claims, as quickly as possible.
NIJC and partner organizations have sued to stop this rule. A federal court has already blocked some of the most dangerous pieces of this rule, but the administration is still pushing to implement it. Learn more about the lawsuit Amica Center for Immigrant Rights v. EOIR and the recent ruling.