EOIR (Executive Office for Immigration Review)

What It Means

The Executive Office for Immigration Review is a Department of Justice agency created in 1983 by DOJ regulation to consolidate the immigration judge corps (formerly within INS) and the Board of Immigration Appeals into a single neutral adjudicatory body. EOIR is headed by a Director who reports to the Attorney General and includes three main adjudicatory components: the Office of the Chief Immigration Judge (OCIJ), which supervises approximately 70 immigration courts and 700-plus immigration judges nationwide; the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), a 21-member appellate body based in Falls Church, Virginia that reviews immigration judge decisions and issues precedent decisions binding on DHS and the IJ corps; and the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (OCAHO), which handles employer sanctions, document fraud, and unfair immigration-related employment practices cases. EOIR uses the CASE system to track dockets and publishes quarterly statistics showing over 3 million pending cases, average completion times of several years, and case-completion rates that have struggled to keep pace with receipts. Immigration judges are DOJ attorneys, not Article III judges, and the Attorney General retains authority under 8 CFR 1003.1(h)(1) to refer BIA decisions to himself or herself and issue binding precedent, a power used sparingly but consequentially (Matter of A-B-, Matter of L-E-A-, Matter of Castro-Tum). Appeals from the BIA go to the federal courts of appeals under INA section 242. Representation rates have historically hovered around 35 to 40%, and represented respondents have substantially higher relief grant rates than pro se respondents.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Terms