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Immigration courts are generally open to the public with a few exceptions, like if the case involves a child or matters of national security. But reporter Alex Cox from member station WRKF has spoken with advocate volunteers who observe immigration proceedings across the country, and they say that they are consistently being denied access.
ALEX COX, BYLINE: The last place you might expect to find an immigration court is a luxury apartment complex with gilded marble floors and a rooftop pool. But if you take the elevator to the fifth floor of the Rivermark Centre in downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana, you'll find just that. Outside of the courtroom, you can often find Bonnie Byland scribbling notes. She's a court observer, someone who volunteers to sit in as an independent observer who documents the proceedings. She says she's been trained to take note of things that are different or feel wrong and report them.
BONNIE BYLAND: That information could indicate that there's a new trend taking place nationwide.
COX: Byland is with the immigrant rights advocacy group, Mision Migrantes. Various immigrant rights organizations across the country have observer programs like this. But they only work if observers can get into the courtrooms, which was a problem for the longest time in Baton Rouge.
BYLAND: We were never allowed into an individual hearing. Although we did request, we were told the answer is no.
COX: Things changed after Byland and others joined a lawsuit seeking access to the court. Now, they're let in with consistency, but they're among the lucky ones.
KATIE FLEMING: There are courts where access seems more accessible, and there are courts where access is much more problematic.
COX: That's Katie Fleming with the Acacia Center for Justice. It's one of the biggest organizations that works with observers across the country. She says access varies from court to court and judge to judge. It's especially hard, she says, when observers want to join a hearing online, as courts use the video conferencing platform, Webex.
FLEMING: The hearings via Webex are certainly the most problematic.
COX: That's because official federal guidance says Webex is only for people involved in the case unless it's completely online and there is no physical courtroom. So immigration hearings often happen without observers. This, Fleming says, is especially concerning given the structure of immigration courts.
FLEMING: It's one of the few independent accountability mechanisms that's left to keep an eye on the immigration court system that is really driven and overseen by the executive branch.
COX: She says, with the Trump administration trying to decrease immigration court's extensive backlog, massive changes are being made very quickly, like judges deciding on asylum cases on the spot without a trial. Gracie Willis is an attorney for the National Immigration Project, a legal advocacy organization. She says it's everyone's First Amendment right to observe proceedings to decide whether you agree with what the administration is doing or not.
GRACIE WILLIS: This is something that our tax dollars are paying for that we should have an opportunity to observe and have opinions about.
COX: But most people don't have time to sit in long early morning hearings to see how things are done, so observers matter, she says.
WILLIS: Very few people will ever step foot into immigration court. It's really important to help translate that into information that everyday folks can understand.
COX: Observers across the country are suing to secure access to courts, arguing that the Department of Justice has shown a pattern and practice of denying them access. A representative from the Department of Justice declined to comment, but the agency has maintained in court its following federal rules which say proceedings are presumed open to the public.
For NPR News, I'm Alex Cox in Baton Rouge.
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