On July 2, 2020, Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) Director James R. McHenry (Director) issued a decision supplementing his prior opinion in Matter of Bay Area Legal Services, Inc., 27 I&N Dec. 837 (2020), wherein he had affirmed the denial of a request for reconsideration of a decision by the office of Legal Access Programs (OLAP). In the previous case, the Director had ruled on when the deadline for the filing of a request to reconsider can be extended, the required grounds and standard of review for such a motion, when precedents are binding thereon, and what skills must be possessed by the person an organization seeks to have accredited.
Subsequently, one of the organizations that had filed an amicus curiae brief contacted EOIR by email, then by letter, requesting clarification on this decision; the Director found that under 8 C.F.R. §1292.18, although amicus may be asked to brief issues in an administrative review there “is no authority for an amicus curiae to seek further action once a decision has been rendered in such a review.” Otherwise, reasoned the Director, a non-party could pursue a case without an applicant’s consent, converting from amicus to “the real party in a case.” No such transformation is allowed in recognition and accreditation proceedings. Thus, construing the communications by amicus as requests or motions for clarification, the requests were denied. Matter of Bay Area Legal Services, Inc., 28 I&N Dec. 16 (DIR 2020).
