The Baton Rouge Immigration Courtroom has been implementing a blanket order by judges to bar all members of the general public — together with immigrants’ relations — from all particular person hearings, a courtroom workers member instructed The Lens on Monday.
That ban is now the premise of an administrative grievance delivered to the U.S. Division of Justice.
United States courts are open to the general public. Immigration courts aren’t any exception. However the Baton Rouge Immigration Courtroom is flouting that commonplace, contends a grievance delivered to the courtroom Monday on behalf of the advocacy group Mision Migrante and most people, who’ve been “repeatedly and illegally denied public entry to look at proceedings.”
The grievance calls for that the courtroom instantly open to the general public, in accordance with the regulation.
Public entry appears to be violated within the Baton Rouge Immigration Courtroom greater than anyplace else within the nation, mentioned lawyer Invoice Quigley, emeritus professor of regulation at Loyola College, who represents Mision Migrante and others denied entry. He reached that conclusion after talking with different attorneys and activists concerning the problem. “Some courts are simply extensive open on a regular basis. Others are patchy. No person has been as unhealthy as this,” he mentioned.
The Lens verified the courtroom’s closure order by trying to attend a person listening to on Monday, shortly after the grievance had been delivered. A safety officer on the door instructed the reporter that, within the curiosity of privateness, judges had unilaterally closed courtrooms relationship again to the courtroom’s opening in October.
“Proper now, per decide discretion, they don’t need anyone in particular person hearings,” mentioned the safety particular person. “Even the relations have to take a seat outdoors.” Individuals had been typically allowed to attend grasp hearings if the decide determined there was sufficient area within the courtroom that day, he mentioned.
An administrator on the courtroom’s entrance desk, who declined to share her title, instructed The Lens’ reporter that the directive had come from “headquarters,” that means the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. She handed the reporter a two-page printout from the Immigration Courtroom Follow Handbook, with one bullet level highlighted. The highlighted portion reads, “The Immigration Choose might restrict attendance or shut a listening to to guard events, witnesses, or the general public curiosity, even when the listening to would usually be open to the general public,” then cites a federal regulation.
The workers member expressed shock to listen to that the reporter had attended hearings at one other Louisiana immigration courtroom. Members of the general public and press are constantly allowed to attend immigration hearings in different courts throughout the nation.
Denied dozens of instances
Mision Migrante courtwatch volunteers have tried to look at hearings inside the Baton Rouge courtroom “dozens of instances over the previous a number of months,” in response to the grievance, which rigorously paperwork the months of denials for particular person hearings: 52 instances between October 2025 and Might 2026. Just one particular person throughout that point interval was allowed to look at a person listening to. Each different time, the volunteers had been turned away.
Observers have been permitted to attend six immigration grasp hearings, that are much like prison courtroom first appearances, however had been denied entrance to grasp hearings seven instances.
The denials fly within the face of the U.S. Structure, which typically requires courtroom proceedings to be open to most people, Quigley mentioned. “The suitable of the general public and press to entry courts and observe proceedings is a cornerstone of the First Modification,” he mentioned. The general public has a proper to info held by the courts, and members of the general public should be capable of take part in our authorities.
The closed Baton Rouge courtroom additionally allegedly violates a number of different federal authorities rules and statutes, together with these of the Federal Code of Rules and the DOJ’s Government Workplace for Immigration Evaluation, which administers immigration courts throughout the nation. The DOJ’s web site for the Baton Rouge Immigration Courtroom’s additionally states that “immigration courtroom hearings are open to the general public, with restricted exceptions as laid out in regulation.”
The highlighted part of the printout given to The Lens’ reporter referred to the very federal regulation that the plaintiffs say the Baton Rouge courtroom is violating.
“All hearings, apart from exclusion hearings, shall be open to the general public,” reads the regulation (emphasis added). The “shall” implies that it is a requirement — not an possibility. The federal regulation then lists the 4 particular exceptions to that requirement. The Baton Rouge handout referred to exception (b), which reads, “For the aim of defending witnesses, events, or the general public curiosity, the Immigration Choose might restrict attendance or maintain a closed listening to.” Courtroom workers made it clear to The Lens’ reporter that the closed courtroom was not an exception that was based mostly on the circumstances of any notably delicate case.
The federal statute lists three different exceptions. Courts will be closed if the courtroom faces overcrowding; for instances that contain an abused partner or youngster; and for instances that contain info underneath seal. The EOIR coverage additionally permits events from the case to file a movement asking an Immigration Choose to shut a listening to. “You may shut for particular causes. However you can not shut the courtroom. You can’t say, ‘No, it’s not open,’” Quigley mentioned.
Neither the Baton Rouge Immigration Courtroom nor the Government Workplace of Immigration Evaluation’s Workplace of Coverage responded to queries by press time.
‘Closed all of the proceedings to the courtroom all day’
Courtwatch volunteers have been documenting lack of entry on the Baton Rouge Immigration Courtroom since shortly after it opened.
On Oct. 20, 2025, a New Orleans activist, Rachel Taber, and a small group of individuals tried to attend a listening to and had been instructed that the decide had closed the courtroom to the general public all day. “After they suggested that that they had permission from one of many respondents, they had been once more instructed that the decide had closed all of the proceedings to the courtroom all day,” reads an October administrative grievance filed by Taber and 4 others, addressed to the courtroom, the U.S. Legal professional Basic, the director of the Government Workplace of Immigration Evaluation, and U.S. Rep. Troy Carter.
In December, the DOJ Workplace of the Inspector Basic responded in writing, advising that the grievance had been forwarded to the Government Workplace of Immigration Evaluation. The EOIR by no means responded.
Two Mision Migrante volunteers, Bonnie Byland and Nancy Grush, have additionally joined as named plaintiffs in a separate case in Washington, D.C.’s district courtroom. In that case, Advocates for Human Rights, headquartered in Minneapolis, have filed a federal lawsuit to compel immigration courts to adjust to public-access legal guidelines, alleging that immigration judges in Minnesota’s Fort Snelling Immigration Courtroom typically locked their courtroom doorways.
Given at the moment’s fraught environment about immigration enforcement, entry to those proceedings, in Baton Rouge and elsewhere, are extra vital than ever, argues this week’s grievance.
“Public oversight has by no means been extra pressing,” the grievance states. “Closing these courtrooms doesn’t make the method extra orderly. It makes it much less accountable. 1000’s of lives are at stake. Observe the regulation. Open the doorways. Let the general public in. Let the general public see. Let the general public know.”
Observe: This story has been up to date to make clear particulars about some individuals barred from courtroom.
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