Closing of Pittsburgh immigration office could result in more deportations, group says

The Executive Office for Immigration Review said it won’t hold hearings at its office on Pittsburgh’s South Side after Friday “due to space and personnel limitations.”

This means immigrants from across Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia will have to travel to Philadelphia Immigration Court for in-person hearings.

The Pittsburgh office, housed in a Sidney Street building occupied by the Department of Homeland Security, wasn’t an in-person court but allowed immigrants to hold hearings with judges in Philadelphia via video conference equipment.

Immigrants in the Pittsburgh area will still have the option of participating in hearings remotely via the Webex video teleconference platform or by telephone via the OpenVoice platform. But Monica Ruiz, director of the Pittsburgh-based immigrant service organization Casa San Jose, said many local immigrants don’t have adequate access to the internet.

She said Casa San Jose has spent much of the pandemic helping about 300 immigrant families gain internet access, but there are many more that don’t have adequate access. Ruiz is concerned about exorbitant costs for Pittsburgh-area immigrants, since many will have to travel to Philadelphia to attend hearings.

“There are people trying to go to court to do it the right way and they are eliminating that possibility for them,” Ruiz said. “We should be making this process easier, not harder.”

Ruiz she is perplexed by closure, given that the Pittsburgh office consists of a video monitor, other technology and a small staff that enables local immigrants to correspond with immigration judges at the Philadelphia court.

Executive Office for Immigration Review spokesperson John Martin said the Department of Homeland security is no longer making a room available for hearings at its Sidney Street location, but the office will continue outreach to help immigrants in the Pittsburgh area.

“EOIR is working with Pittsburgh-area immigration attorneys and immigration advocates to assist noncitizens and their representatives who do not wish to travel from Western Pennsylvania or West Virginia to Philadelphia for an immigration court hearing,” Martin said.

Ruiz said she believes the office’s closure will lead to more deportations. Casa San Jose primarily works with Latino immigrants, many of whom are from very poor and rural parts of Central America, but Ruiz said she also is concerned how this could hurt newly arriving refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine.

“It is not just Latinos. We are receiving a lot of refugees from other countries. This is limiting the access for them as well,” Ruiz said.

Casa San Jose has started a petition in hopes of gathering support to keep the office open in Pittsburgh.