[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 122 (Monday, June 25, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29575-29577]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-13578]
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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Executive Office for Immigration Review
[EOIR Docket No. 18-0202]
RIN 1125-AA81
EOIR Electronic Filing Pilot Program
AGENCY: Executive Office for Immigration Review, Department of Justice.
ACTION: Public notice.
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SUMMARY: The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) is creating
a voluntary pilot program to test an expansion of electronic filing for
cases filed with the immigration courts and the Board of Immigration
Appeals (BIA). This notice describes the procedures for participation
in the pilot program.
DATES: The pilot program will be in effect from July 16, 2018 until
July 31, 2019. Initially, expanded electronic filing will be available
in six immigration courts, but will be expanded to all remaining courts
and the BIA incrementally. Eligible attorneys and accredited
representatives may choose to participate at any time during the pilot
program and will be permitted to continue using electronic filing
throughout the pendency of electronically filed cases.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Nathan Berkeley, Acting Chief,
Communications and Legislative Affairs Division, Office of Policy,
Executive Office for Immigration Review, 5107 Leesburg Pike, Suite
2618, Falls Church, VA 22041, telephone (703) 305-0289 (not a toll-free
call) or email [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
In 1998, Congress passed the Government Paperwork Elimination Act,
which required federal agencies to provide the public with the ability
to conduct business electronically with the federal government. See
Public Law 105-277 (Oct. 21, 1998). Similarly, in 2002, Congress passed
the E-Government Act of 2002, which promoted electronic government
services and required agencies to use internet-based technology to
increase the public's access to government information and services.
See Public Law 107-347 (Dec. 17, 2002).
As a result, EOIR began pursuing a long-term agency plan to create
an electronic case access and filing system for the immigration courts
and BIA. See 68 FR 71650 (Dec. 20, 2003) (``The Department is . . .
designing an
[[Page 29576]]
electronic case access and filing system, to comply with the Government
Paperwork Elimination Act, to achieve the Department's vision for
improved immigration adjudication processing, and to meet the public
expectations for electronic government.'').
On April 1, 2013, EOIR completed the first portion of their
electronic system by establishing eRegistry, a mandatory electronic
registry for all attorneys and accredited representatives who practice
before the immigration courts and the BIA. See 78 FR 19400 (April 1,
2013). At the same time, EOIR began allowing attorneys and fully
accredited representatives \1\ to electronically file the Notice of
Entry of Appearance as Attorney or Representative (Form EOIR-27 and
Form EOIR-28, for the BIA and immigration courts, respectively).
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\1\ EOIR's Office of Legal Access Programs reviews non-
attorneys' applications to become fully accredited representatives
who, upon approval, can represent aliens in immigration court
proceedings and before DHS. For more information, please see https://www.justice.gov/eoir/recognition-and-accreditation-program. This
pilot is not available to partially accredited representatives.
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Next, on May 4, 2015, EOIR launched eInfo, which allows registered
attorneys and accredited representatives to view their clients' case
information.\2\ See News Release, The Executive Office for Immigration
Review Announces I \3\, https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/pages/attachments/2015/09/17/e-info-news-release-05042015.pdf.
Attorneys and accredited representatives can login to the eInfo
application to view a list of cases for which they have an active
Notice of Entry of Appearance (Form EOIR-27 and/or Form EOIR-28) and
select one to view case-related information.
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\2\ EOIR also consolidated eRegistry, eInfo, and eFiling into a
single application suite, known as I\3\. For more information about
I \3\, please visit https://www.justice.gov/eoir/internet-immigration-info.
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Since January 2017, EOIR has been undertaking additional and more
expansive initiatives to reduce its longstanding backlog of cases and
working to ensure the more efficient handling of matters before the
immigration court system. To that end, EOIR is moving towards
implementing a long sought-after electronic system component that will
allow parties to electronically file case-related documents with the
immigration courts and the BIA.
II. Pilot Program
EOIR is now planning to pilot an expansion of electronic filing
within eInfo to allow certain parties to electronically file case-
related documents with the immigration courts and, eventually, the BIA.
With the exception of entering a Notice of Entry of Appearance through
I\3\, parties before the immigration courts and the BIA are currently
required to submit paper filings to EOIR and to serve a copy on the
other party in-person, by mail, or through DHS's eService portal.
Expanded electronic filing will meet the long sought-after requests
of the private bar to accept electronic filings. See, e.g., AILA
Testimony on EOIR, AILA Doc. No. 10061664 (June 17, 2010). As the
expanded electronic filing pilot is a major change to EOIR processes,
the pilot will be limited to DHS personnel, and registered attorneys
and accredited representatives eligible to practice before EOIR.
The pilot will allow attorneys and accredited representatives to
electronically file case-related documents directly through eInfo.
Similarly, DHS representatives will be able to login to a parallel
portal to electronically file case-related documents. The expanded
electronic filing pilot will allow the parties to file documents at any
time of day without having to mail the documents to the court or BIA,
or to file them in-person at the court or BIA. Parties will receive an
on-screen confirmation with a unique transaction ID, as well as an
encrypted verification email, when their document is successfully
uploaded. They will also receive an encrypted notification email when a
new document has been filed in their case by the opposing party.
Instructions to decrypt emails will be available on EOIR's website.
This will provide the parties with near-immediate access to filings in
their cases. Both pilot participants and non-participants will be able
to view any documents contained in their case by accessing eInfo and
requesting to download the electronic Record of Proceeding (eROP).
To ensure that parties receive proper notice from the opposing
party to their case, pilot parties will be required to continue to meet
current service requirements \3\ for any documents that they are
electronically filing with the court or BIA. Participation in the pilot
neither relieves parties of the duty to provide a certificate of
service with filings nor changes the time at which response documents
are due. The timeline for responses begins at the time the system sends
an email regarding a filing to the opposing party.
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\3\ For information on service requirements, please see the
Immigration Court Practice Manual and the Board of Immigration
Appeals Practice Manual at www.justice.gov/eoir.
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Case-related documents EOIR generates at the pilot locations, such
as decisions, orders, or notices, will be served only electronically on
participating parties. Both parties will receive an encrypted email
from EOIR with the document attached. This will constitute valid
service and proper notice by EOIR during the pilot. To effectuate such
service, attorneys and accredited representatives will be required to
maintain a valid email address in the eRegistry application.
Throughout the pilot, EOIR will continue to refine and develop
electronic filing. In the future, the agency envisions making
electronic filing mandatory for all attorneys and accredited
representatives appearing before EOIR and optional for pro se
respondents. To ensure the most efficient and user-friendly system
possible, EOIR hopes to receive feedback from participating parties,
both internal and external. Participants will be able to provide input
at any time through an email link within eInfo.
III. Eligibility To Participate
Beginning in July 2018, EOIR is planning to roll out the expanded
electronic filing to six initial pilot courts: San Diego and York in
July; Denver and Atlanta in August; and Charlotte and Baltimore in
September. Following an internal assessment of the pilot in those
courts, EOIR anticipates expanding the pilot to additional courts every
few weeks beginning in December 2018. EOIR will also be working towards
implementing expanded electronic filing at the BIA during this time
period. Information regarding future pilot expansion will be located on
EOIR's website at https://www.justice.gov/eoir/internet-immigration-info.
Participation in the pilot program is voluntary. An opportunity to
participate in the pilot will be available throughout the duration of
the pilot to all EOIR-registered attorneys and accredited
representatives in good standing. Information on participating in the
pilot will be provided on EOIR's website at https://www.justice.gov/eoir/internet-immigration-info. Only registered attorneys and
accredited representatives will be permitted to participate in the
pilot.
IV. Procedures for Participation
To participate in the expanded electronic filing pilot, attorneys
and accredited representatives must be registered with EOIR through
eRegistry pursuant to 8 CFR 1292.1(f). The eRegistry process for
attorneys and accredited representatives will not change. Similarly, to
participate in the
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pilot DHS personnel will also use eRegistry to register with EOIR.
Once the eRegistry process is complete, attorneys and accredited
representatives will have access to eInfo, located at https://www.justice.gov/eoir/internet-immigration-info, and DHS personnel will
have access to the parallel DHS electronic filing portal. When an
attorney or accredited representative first accesses eInfo, the option
to participate in the expanded electronic filing pilot is presented.
The attorney or accredited representative must agree to a set of terms
and conditions for the pilot, which explain the requirements for
participation in the pilot and are mandatory for pilot participants.
Failure to follow the pilot requirements to which attorneys and
representatives agree upon signing up and agreeing to the terms and
conditions may lead to serious adverse consequences, such as filings
being rejected or not receiving service of documents from EOIR. Any
future changes to the terms and conditions will be presented to the
attorney or accredited representative in eInfo and will require their
voluntary acceptance for continued participation in the pilot.
An attorney or accredited representative's acceptance of the
pilot's terms and conditions is an agreement to participate in the
pilot for all cases for which they have filed a Notice of Entry of
Appearance and an eROP is available. Throughout the pilot at
participating immigration courts, eROPs will be available for all cases
in which one of the parties files an initiating document, such as a
Form I-862, Notice to Appear; Form I-863, Notice of Referral to
Immigration Judge; or a bond redetermination request. An eROP will also
be available when an attorney or accredited representative files a
Notice of Entry of Appearance and the court staff scan the existing
paper record of proceedings into the pilot system. Representatives will
be able to tell which cases have an eROP by the active upload button
that will appear in the system.
Attorneys and accredited representatives will be able to
electronically file documents in eligible cases beyond the pilot end
date until the conclusion of all administrative proceedings in those
cases, including any remands from the federal courts. In any case where
a motion for change of venue is granted from a pilot location to a non-
pilot location, or a clerical transfer occurs from a pilot location to
a non-pilot location, the attorney or accredited representative will be
required to follow the current non-electronic filing requirements at
the non-pilot location.
The attorney or accredited representative may leave the pilot at
any time by selecting the ``opt out'' option in eInfo. By leaving the
pilot, the attorney or accredited representative must revert to
following all current procedures and requirements for non-electronic
filing with the immigration courts and BIA for those cases that were
part of the pilot. The eROP for those files already electronically
filed will remain available for download, but electronic scanning or
filing will be unavailable to that attorney during the pilot period
unless the attorney opts back in to the pilot. The attorney or
accredited representative may choose to join the pilot again by
returning to eInfo and re-accepting the pilot terms and conditions
during the pilot period.
V. Additional Information
Registered attorneys and registered accredited representatives will
be held responsible for all activity conducted under their accounts.
Misuse of the electronic filing system may result in EOIR revoking an
attorney or accredited representative's participation in the pilot, and
in referral to EOIR's disciplinary counsel or anti-fraud officer, or
other appropriate parties, as necessary.
If an attorney or accredited representative has been disbarred or
suspended from practice before the immigration courts or the BIA or is
otherwise not authorized to practice law before EOIR, EOIR will
deactivate the user's EOIR ID, which provides access to electronic
filing, unless and until the BIA reinstates or otherwise permits the
attorney or accredited representative to resume practice. See 8 CFR
1003.101 et seq.
EOIR will not initially collect or accept any fee payments through
this expanded electronic filing pilot. Any fees related to
applications, forms, motions, or appeals that require a fee payment
should continue to be paid to the Department of Homeland Security or
the BIA through current procedures. See 8 CFR 1003.24. Once expanded
electronic filing is available at the BIA, EOIR expects electronic
payments will be available for appeals and BIA motions that require a
fee.
Dated: June 19, 2018.
Nathan Berkeley,
Acting Chief, CLAD.
[FR Doc. 2018-13578 Filed 6-22-18; 8:45 am]
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