Durbin Speaks Out Against Trump Administration’s Dismantling Of Legal Immigration System

Durbin Speaks Out Against Trump Administration's Dismantling Of Legal Immigration System

Durbin spoke on the Senate floor in support of his resolution with Senator Kaine that would overturn an interim final rule by DOJ that would prevent immigrants from appealing their immigration court cases before the Board of Immigration Appeals

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and author of the Dream Act, delivered remarks ahead of the Senate's vote on his and U.S. Senator Tim Kaine's (D-VA) Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to overturn an interim final rule by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that would prevent any meaningful opportunity to appeal an immigration court case to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), essentially stripping immigrants of due process for their requests to obtain release from detention or to establish eligibility for relief from deportation. Additionally, the rule would eliminate meaningful review of life-and-death decisions by immigration judges and overload already-saturated Federal Circuit Courts of Appeals with a deluge of immigration cases with undeveloped records. Asylum seekers fleeing persecution, families fighting separation, Afghan allies who supported the U.S. military, and individuals with limited or no access to legal representation would be particularly harmed by this new rule.

Kaine and Durbin introduced this privileged resolution on May 1, 2026, and called it for a vote within the 60-day timeframe for privileged CRAs. This legislation, which required a simple majority to pass the Senate, failed a vote on the motion to proceed.

"I rise in support of S.J. Res. 190 to disapprove of an interim final rule entitled 'Appellate Procedures for the Board of Immigration Appeals'-a regulation from the Justice Department that would greatly limit opportunities for appeal in immigration courts," Durbin began.

"This new regulation is just the latest in a series of actions by the Trump Administration to end judicial independence in our immigration court system. Last year, the Trump Administration fired hundreds of immigration judges. There is a huge backlog [of immigration cases] that needs to be decided by our immigration courts. The response of the Trump Administration was to eliminate immigration judges. Make sense? Of course not," Durbin said.

Durbin recalled meeting with Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Jennifer Peyton in Chicago last year. Shortly after their meeting, Judge Peyton was abruptly fired despite nearly ten years working at the Chicago Immigration Court. Similarly, the Trump Administration has removed 13 judges from the BIA.

"One of those who was eliminated was Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Jennifer Payton. She worked for nearly ten years at the Chicago Immigration Court through Democratic and Republican administrations. What was the cause for the dismissal of this woman who spent almost ten years before the court? I can tell you because I witnessed it personally. You know what she had the nerve to do? When I called the immigration court and said 'Can I sit in the audience and listen to an immigration hearing?' She said, 'I'll meet you at the front door and escort you to the courtroom.' She met me, introduced herself, took me to the courtroom, and left. I didn't see her again that day. That was grounds for dismissal by the Trump Administration," Durbin said. "She was dismissed and fired without any stated cause."

"The Administration is taking the same approach with the Board of Immigration Appeals, firing 13 judges appointed during the Biden Administration, and decreasing the number of Board judges from 28 to 15. These firings paved the way for the Administration to hire what they are calling 'deportation judges,'" Durbin continued.

Durbin underscored that these attacks on the infrastructure of immigration courts is a core tenet of the Trump Administration's mass deportation campaign. The Trump Administration has attacked DACA protections through the dismantled and politicized BIA, threatening the ability of Dreamers to remain in the country they call home.

"These changes are not about efficiency. They are about finality, the end of the road for people who have been following the law every step of the way. They are about dismantling due process and destroying any means by which an immigrant might have a fair chance at making their case," Durbin said.

"Just take the Board of Immigration Appeals' recent decision in Matter of Santiago Santiago. It confirmed what we already knew-even though DACA is supposed to protect Dreamers from immigration enforcement, this Administration wants to find a way to deport Dreamers," Durbin said.

"DACA is about kids, children, infants, brought to the United States, living their whole life in the United States, who go through a background check, which includes serious efforts to determine whether there's any criminal activity in their background. Then they pay a $600 filing fee, and then they are protected for two years to work in the United States without fear of deportation. Does that sound like the 'worst of the worst' criminals? They're teachers. They're nurses. They're doctors, the police. They're members of our military, but they've got to be gone in the world of Stephen Miller," Durbin said. "The decision [in Matter of Santiago Santiago] paved the way for Immigration Judges to issue deportation orders to DACA recipients who grew up in this country and are legally protected from deportation."

Durbin concluded his remarks by calling on his colleagues to support his joint resolution to protect the legal immigration process. He further called out Senate Republicans for claiming that they are not against legal immigration while they allow the Trump Administration to dismantle critical legal immigration policies.

"I urge my colleagues to reject this attempt to gut due process in our immigration court system and vote in support of this resolution," Durbin said.

"How many times have I heard my Republican colleagues say, 'I'm not against immigration. I'm against illegal immigration.' Really? If you eliminate the legal process where an individual seeking status in America can assert their rights under the law, it seems to me you already pre-judged the case," Durbin concluded his remarks.

Specifically, the interim final rule would slash time to file an appeal from 30 days to 10; vastly expand the BIA's authority to summarily dismiss appears without reviewing the cases' merits; prevent most cases from even briefed, thereby limiting meaningful review; and leave individuals with only one remaining option for recourse-a federal court review-which will overwhelm the federal court of appeals with unreviewed immigration cases.

Full text of Durbin and Kaine's resolution is available here.

Video of Durbin's remarks on the Senate floor is available here.

Audio of Durbin's remarks on the Senate floor is available here.

Footage of Durbin's remarks on the Senate floor is available here for TV Stations.

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