RCFP asks federal court system to lift access restrictions on immigration records

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has asked the federal court system’s policymaking body to remove restrictions on the public’s electronic access to judicial records in immigration cases, arguing that they impede on the press and public’s ability to understand a matter of tremendous public interest: the government’s immigration enforcement actions. 

In a letter to a committee of the Judicial Conference, the Reporters Committee expressed concerns about a little-known rule that blocks public access to immigration case filings via PACER, the electronic system for federal court records, forcing journalists to visit the courthouse during business hours to view them in person. 

The letter is the Reporters Committee’s latest effort to push back against the restrictions laid out in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2(c), which creates obstacles to access that “produce harmful consequences on a nationwide scale,” the Reporters Committee argues in the letter. It notes that the Reporters Committee regularly hears from reporters who struggle to cover immigration cases due to the rule.

Federal courts have the authority to lift 5.2(c) restrictions, which the Reporters Committee has argued are both too broad and too narrow to serve the rule’s purported goal of protecting sensitive information. Last year, a federal appeals court removed the restrictions in a high-profile immigration case in response to a motion Reporters Committee attorneys filed on behalf of The Intercept. 

But a “case-by-case and court-by-court approach of departing from Rule 5.2(c) is not sufficient to vindicate the public’s right of access,” the Reporters Committee argues in the letter. The Reporters Committee asked the Judicial Conference to remove the rule’s reference to immigration filings so that immigration case records are treated the same as most other federal court filings, which are generally available to the public on PACER. 

“This solution would promote more accurate and contemporaneous reporting on immigration proceedings in federal court, while also simplifying the process of access and ensuring greater uniformity in the openness of judicial records in federal court civil matters,” the letter states.

The letter went to an advisory committee composed of a federal judge and law professors, who consider the suggested change and decide whether it has merit. If approved, the proposed amendment will go through further committee review and a public comment period before it must be approved by the Judicial Conference and the U.S. Supreme Court.