Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) announced changes to the automated immigration case information system on Monday. Improvements were supposedly made to establish a higher level of security for the immigrant, their family members and representatives who want to have access to information about the current status of their case.
However, I believe, like other fellow lawyers, that instead of improving the system, the changes will make the process of obtaining information so difficult that it will harm people who have pending cases.
Currently, the system only requires callers to enter their Alien Registration Number to obtain future hearing dates and previous or updated information about their case. But starting next week, the system will also ask for the date of the first government-issued immigration case citation.
The problem is that in many cases, immigrants who are being processed lose or misplace these documents. If they do not have them on hand, they or their legal representatives will not be able to obtain important information about their cases, such as future hearing dates.
At this time, I have joined a group of lawyers to file a formal complaint to stop this change from being instituted.