The Board of Immigration Appeals has agreed to post unpublished decisions in a virtual reading room available on the BIA’s website as a result of a settlement of a lawsuit filed by the Public Citizen Litigation Group on behalf of New York Legal Assistance Group. This landmark transparency effort gives you and your clients direct access to a body of case law that was previously unavailable to the public.
What changed
The BIA will need to post 50% of its past decisions by July 15, 2026, and all its past decisions by July 15, 2027. The decisions will be available beginning October 15 (of 2026). This settlement could give immigrants and attorneys needed insight into how the BIA might rule on their cases.
In limited circumstances, however, the BIA may still exempt certain decisions from disclosure, like in a situation where the identity of the individual subject to the decision would be revealed even with redactions.
The settlement stems from a favorable decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in February 2021, which ruled that people could sue the government under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to force agencies to proactively post certain legal opinions on agency websites.
Why it matters
From 2012 to 2016, the BIA issued 30,000 decisions per year and only designated about 30 per year as precedential. Until now, those 30,000 annual unpublished decisions were essentially hidden from you unless you either had direct access to a limited law library in Falls Church, Virginia, or pursued an individual FOIA request.
Though these decisions don’t establish precedent, they are extremely important in assisting immigration attorneys determine how an immigration judge or the BIA may rule on certain issues. The unpublished cases include factors the BIA considers in making decisions and can help identify issues that may be ripe for litigation.
This changes your appellate research and case strategy. You’ll now be able to see how the BIA approaches similar fact patterns, discretionary waivers, credibility determinations, and other issues specific to your client’s case—without relying on government attorneys to cite them against you first. The Second Circuit’s decision in NYLAG v. BIA clarified that when a plaintiff wins a lawsuit to enforce the FOIA’s reading room provisions, the agency must publish the government’s documents that are subject to the reading room provisions.
Way forward
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Mark your calendar for July 15, 2026. The BIA will need to post 50% of its past decisions by July 15, 2026, and the remainder by July 15, 2027. Plan to review and index cases relevant to your practice areas as they come online.
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Visit the virtual reading room when it launches. The decisions will be available beginning October 15 via the BIA’s website. Bookmark the link and check it regularly for newly posted decisions in your practice areas.
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Update your appellate research workflow. Integrate unpublished BIA decisions into your case strategy memos and appellate briefs. These decisions, while not precedential, are highly persuasive and give you insight into how individual Board members and panels approach common issues.
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Verify redaction scope. As the BIA posts decisions, check whether identifying information is redacted uniformly. The BIA may exempt certain decisions from disclosure where the identity of the individual subject to the decision would be revealed even with redactions, so you’ll want to understand which cases remain unavailable and why.
Disclaimer
This article is not legal advice and does not constitute a substitute for consultation with a licensed immigration attorney. It is provided for informational purposes only to help practitioners and the public understand immigration policy changes. Immigration law is complex, and policy can change without notice. Always verify information against the primary source document linked above and consult a qualified attorney for advice on your specific case. Fola, Inc. is software platform, not a law firm.