Margaret Kwoka's New Book "Saving FOIA" is a Must-Read + Public Citizen Wins Case to Make BIA Decisions Public
Margaret Kwoka’s new book Saving the Freedom of Information Act examines how government oversight has been undermined by FOIA trying to be everything to everyone. Kwoka makes an impassioned—and convincing—argument for why we need to fight to keep the government oversight mission of FOIA alive.
If you work in the immigration world in any capacity, I encourage you to get the book because it is packed with data and insights into how immigration-related FOIA works. Researchers, policy analysts, students, lawyers, journalists, and government officers themselves will come away with a richer understanding of the problems facing FOIA today.
As a side note, I am happy to share that Margaret Kwoka is now a professor at my alma mater, the Ohio State University.
Yale Symposium on "Saving FOIA” by Margaret Kwoka
I was very happy (and humbled) to be asked to join an online symposium by the Yale Journal on Regulation to discuss Margaret’s book. I think you’ll find the range of responses to be informative and readable.
My contribution to the symposium is here: ‘Studying Up’ the FOIA State by Austin Kocher. Immigration folks will also appreciate Ingrid Eagly’s contribution titled “Access to Public Records in Immigration Law” which explores the problematic lack of discovery in removal proceedings and why FOIA is such an inadequate and unjust workaround.
The entire list of responses to Kwoka’s book can be found here. Note that Kwoka is scheduled to post a final response to the symposium in the coming days, so do watch for that, too.
Public Citizen Win! BIA Decisions Must Be Made Public says Court
In related government transparency news, Public Citizen, where Kwoka used to work as a FOIA litigator, just announced an historical settlement that will finally require the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) to make *all* board decisions in immigration cases public. The BIA is a panel of judges that decide cases that are appealed from individual immigration judges.
Until now, the BIA’s decisions, which have tremendous influence over immigration judges and are treated as a kind of precedent for future BIA decisions, have been secretive. Public Citizen (appropriately, I think) calls these cases “secret case law.” In practice, the lack of publicity about precedent-setting decisions creates an information asymmetry between immigrants and the federal government.
See Public Citizen’s announcement here. And by the way, see Kwoka’s book for even more on government transparency issues like this one.
THANK YOU FOR READING! 🙏🏼
If you found this information useful, help more people see it by clicking the ☼LIKE☼ ☼SHARE☼ button below.