We have some news to share: Habeas Dockets has reorganized as a nonprofit, operating under the name Immigration Justice Transparency Initiative (IJTI). We are currently awaiting formal 501(c)(3) status, and we couldn't be more committed to the work ahead.
This transition reflects what Habeas Dockets has always been — a public interest project, not a commercial one. Since launching, we have coordinated a network of vetted volunteers to lawfully retrieve immigration habeas corpus filings from federal courthouse public terminals, making documents available online that would otherwise remain out of reach for journalists, attorneys, academics, and the general public. The procedural rule that restricts remote access to these filings — FRCP 5.2(c) — doesn't change the fact that these are public records. We exist to make that nominal publicness into something real.
As IJTI, our mission expands to reflect the full scope of what this work requires. Habeas corpus petitions represent some of the most consequential filings in the federal court system: urgent requests from people in immigration detention asking a judge to intervene, to recognize a right, to restore a freedom. Many of these petitioners have no lawyer. They write and file from inside detention facilities, and the cases that result are effectively hidden from public view by a procedural rule designed for a different era. We close that gap — carefully, lawfully, and with rigorous attention to the privacy of everyone whose documents we handle.
Beyond document access, IJTI is committed to public education about habeas corpus, immigration detention, and due process; and to supporting the researchers, journalists, and advocates working to understand what patterns across the detention system reveal. Court transparency is not a niche interest — it is a precondition for accountability.
We are grateful for the support that got us here, and we welcome new volunteers, collaborators, and donors as we move into this next chapter.