Judges cannot stop deportation proceedings 

 

 

The Supreme Court has declined to intervene in a dispute regarding a Biden-era regulation that allowed immigration judges to use "administrative closure" to temporarily pause deportation proceedings.

By refusing to restore this policy, the court effectively left in place a lower court's decision that had thrown out the rule. The regulation, adopted in 2024, had given judges the discretion to suspend cases—for instance, to allow individuals such as crime victims or witnesses to seek humanitarian relief or asylum through other agencies.

The challenge to the rule was brought by Texas, which argued that the Executive Office for Immigration Review lacked the authority to adopt such a policy and that federal law requires judges to decide whether an individual is removable at the end of a proceeding. The court's brief, unsigned order had no noted dissents.