On December 23, 2020, Catholic Legal Immigration Network, with several other immigration service organizations, filed this lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Catholic Legal Immigration Network sued the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) under the Administrative Procedure Act. Represented by private counsel, the National Immigration Law Center, and the American Immigration Council, Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) sought a stay in the effective date of a rule promulgated by EOIR that set a new fee schedule for removal proceedings. They claimed that EOIR's new fee-schedule rule was arbitrary and capricious and that its comment period was too short, violating the Administrative Procedure Act's notice-and-comment requirement. CLINIC also claimed that the new rule violated the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment and the Equal Protection clause because the fees were so high that they effectively barred asylum seekers from meaningfully participating in removal proceedings.

Judge Amit P. Mehta stayed the effective dates of the final rule as to a specific subset of fees pending adjudication of the lawsuit on January 18, 2021. 2021 WL 184359. The last action of the case was an order staying proceedings, including pleading deadlines, until April 2, 2021.

As of February 18, 2021, the case remains ongoing.

Casey D'Alesandro - 02/18/2021


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