AG Revives Immigration Judges’ Power to Postpone Deportation Cases

On Thursday, Attorney General Garland issued a ruling that will allow immigration judges to once again postpone deportation cases when appropriate. Since at least the 1980s, immigration judges relied on their authority to administratively close cases, but it was eliminated by the Trump administration. Judges typically use this authority to postpone cases where the individual in the case has a pending application for relief before the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, such as a U visa.

“Garland in a four-page opinion said Sessions' 2018 ruling in Matter of Castro-Tum, which has been rejected by three federal appeals courts, improperly parted from decades of practice by concluding that no federal law or regulation authorized so-called "administrative closure."

Garland said that because administrative closure does not terminate or dismiss deportation cases, it is an appropriate tool for immigration judges to manage their busy dockets.”

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