DUE PROCESS AND DECISIONMAKING IN U.S. IMMIGRATION ADJUDICATION

Benesch discusses the recent major administrative changes at the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), which are commonly known as "BIA streamlining," to determine whether the "streamlined" BIA provides adequate due process. Attorney General Janet Reno adopted the first set of streamlining rules in 1992 to clear the large backlog of cases that had accumulated during the 1990s, when the system saw great increases in both expulsion orders from immigration courts, and appeals of those orders to the BIA. In December 2001, after the (first) streamlining rules went into effect, independent auditors hired by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) reported that streamlining had been "an unqualified success."