# Board of Immigration Appeals **Status: stub — expand.** The **Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA)** is the administrative appellate body inside the [[Executive Office for Immigration Review]] that reviews immigration judges' decisions. Its published decisions bind every immigration judge and DHS nationwide; its unpublished ones do not — unless the Attorney General designates them as precedent under 8 C.F.R. § 1003.1(g)(3), a practice used repeatedly in 2025–26 (*Matter of Cotrufo*, *Matter of O-Y-A-E-*, *Matter of De Jesus-Platon*, *Matter of Garcia-Flores*). Under 8 C.F.R. § 1003.1(h) the Attorney General may also refer any Board decision to himself and decide it, rewriting the precedent — the "certification" power exercised in *Matter of A-B-* and *Matter of Castro-Tum* (2018), reversed in 2021, and restored from 2025. The Board's chair is styled Chief Appellate Immigration Judge; David H. Wetmore held the seat as of September 2026. **2025–26.** The Board was reduced from 28 to 15 members by an interim rule of April 14, 2025, and a February 6, 2026 interim rule made merits review of immigration-judge decisions discretionary. Its September 5, 2025 precedent [[Matter of Yajure Hurtado]] — holding that every person who entered without inspection is an "applicant for admission" ineligible for a bond hearing — is the administrative backbone of the expanded mandatory-detention regime and the center of a live circuit split. ## See also - [[Immigration Removal Pipeline]] — Stage 6 of the process map - [[Executive Office for Immigration Review]] · [[Department of Justice]] · [[Attorney General]] - [[Matter of Yajure Hurtado]]