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The Supreme Court stripped immigration judges of the ability to pause certain deportation proceedings on Tuesday, declining to block a deal slammed as “egregious collusion” between the Justice Department and the state of Texas.
The unsigned order on Tuesday halts the practice known as “administrative closure,” which allows judges to pause deportation cases. The practice affects thousands of cases a year, and has been granted 360,000 times since 1990, according to statistics by the Executive Office for Immigration Review.
The procedure clears a judge’s dockets while other circumstances surrounding the migrant are resolved, including appeals of criminal cases or if they are seeking humanitarian protections or other legal status. It can also give some people relief in difficult circumstances, such as those who were the victims of certain crimes or children who were abused or abandoned.
Data has previously shown that most immigrants whose cases return to court after administrative closure are ultimately allowed to stay in the U.S.
The first Trump administration had said that judges lacked the authority to perform the practice, but the Biden administration restored it through a rule issued in 2024.
There were no noted dissents to the Supreme Court’s decision, and the Court provided no explanation for its reasoning. The decision hands the Trump administration another tool in its mass deportation campaign as immigration officials wantonly violate court orders and pressure judges to issue more deportation orders.
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The ruling upholds an extraordinary judiciary maneuver by the state of Texas and the Trump administration, as critics said.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had originally sued the government over the Biden administration rule in 2024. The case was brought to federal court this June, where Texas officials argued that the rule was “one part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s campaign to undermine our immigration laws,” and said it exceeds the government’s authority.
Hours after Texas officials filed that case, Texas and the Trump Department of Justice — which oversees immigration judges — in the same court asking for the Biden rule to be thrown out. The judge promptly granted that order.
Three cities challenged that order, with their in a filing to the Supreme Court that the Texas-DOJ deal amounted to “egregious collusion.”
“The government … announced in advance that it would not defend a disfavored regulation and then colluded with the challenger from the moment that suit was filed,” the lawyers challenging the deal said.
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