Emily Creighton
Emily Creighton is the Deputy Legal Director at the American Immigration Council. She oversees the development of the Council’s legal education, non-litigation advocacy, and Freedom of Information Act work, and supports the Immigration Justice Campaign. Prior to her new role at the Council, she served as the Senior Advisor on Humanitarian Programs at the CIS Ombudsman’s Office from 2016 to 2017. Previous to that, she was a Senior Staff Attorney with the Council. As a staff attorney, she engaged in impact litigation, representing amicus curiae in immigration cases in federal court and before the Board of Immigration Appeals, and authored numerous practice advisories. Emily holds a J.D. from American University Washington College of Law and a B.A. from Boston College.
A FOIA request has forced the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) to produce its comprehensive plan for reducing the immigration court backlog. Though partially redacted, the aim of the October 2017 “Strategic Caseload Reduction Plan” is clear—to fundamentally alter the immigration court system under the guise of creating efficiencies. EOIR is already implementing this […]
Lack of transparency has long dogged the enforcement branches of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in particular, has been the subject of numerous requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) during the Trump administration and previous administrations. Records produced in response to FOIA requests demonstrate that […]
The Trump administration’s move to deport more people from the United States has come into sharp focus again as it targets some of the most vulnerable immigrants with its Notice to Appear (NTA) policy. The new policy, announced in June 2018, had already dramatically altered the role of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) by […]
Each year on September 17, America marks Citizenship Day, an annual opportunity to reflect on the benefits and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship. In years past, it was used as a day to celebrate new Americans and encourage others who are eligible to become U.S. citizens. However, this year is different, as the security associated with […]
Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a decision on continuances in immigration court that both recognized their importance and decried their alleged overuse. This decision will have widespread implications for immigration court process. The case, Matter of L-A-B-R-, addresses circumstances under which an immigration judge can continue a case so a person in removal proceedings may […]
The forced separation of children from their parents by U.S. government officials has created a human rights disaster. Children—some just a few months old—continue to be housed in tent cities, shelters, and foster care while their parents desperately await word of their children’s whereabouts. In some cases, parents are deported without their children. Recent days […]
The Trump administration continued its shortsighted attack on businesses this week, indicating it will end a rule allowing foreign entrepreneurs to grow start-up companies in the United States. The International Entrepreneur Rule (IER) was designed to bring the talent, ideas, and initiative of foreign entrepreneurs to the United States by easing the process for them […]
A newly-released document obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) shows that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is making radical changes to the immigration court system that deliberately contradict the recommendations given to the department by its own independent evaluators. The recommendations were made in an April 2017 Booz Allen Hamilton report commissioned by […]
To shed light on the cruel and unlawful practice of family separation, a group of immigrant rights organizations filed a series of Freedom of Information Act requests to multiple government agencies this week. The groups seek agency records underlying an unconscionable practice where immigration officials at the border purposefully divide families–taking children from their parents […]
In another victory for over 300 Iraqis whose deportation was halted last July, a Michigan district court ruled that they must be permitted to seek bond while their immigration cases are pending. Many of the Iraqis were swept up in a massive enforcement action in June 2017 and have remained in detention since that time. […]
