In order for Immigration Judges to efficiently manage their dockets during removal procedures, the US Attorney General has decided to reinstate Administrative Closure.
This ruling gives the deportation authorities back the ability to determine the order of their caseloads and dockets, together with the recent memorandum that gave the ICE Office of the Chief Counsel prosecutorial discretion.
Immigration judges were found to lack the legal jurisdiction to give administrative closure in removal proceedings in the Castro-Tum case, which the US Attorney General decided in 2018.
This ruling dealt a fatal blow to ICE’s, immigration judges, and attorneys’ abilities to determine which cases merited discretionary closing and which required higher priority treatment. There was room to handle higher priority cases more quickly by shutting the ones seen as having a lower priority from a law enforcement standpoint.
Please contact an experienced Family immigration attorney Dallas if you are in the midst of deportation proceedings and would like to learn how this change affects you to determine your best course of action.
Who Might Qualify For Administrative Closure?
The government considers several variables in deciding which cases might deserve a finding of low priority treatment, administrative closure, and prosecutorial discretion. Among them are the following:
Criminal history – It goes without saying that enforcement efforts should be prioritised higher for those who commit crimes unlawfully in the US and are at risk of deportation.
Time in the US – The longer a person has lived in the US, the more likely it is that they have established a family, a life, and other assets there.
American ancestry – This is a significant one. A person should receive lower priority treatment in the deportation process if they are married to a US citizen or resident or have children born in the US. Where it makes sense to, keeping families together should be a top concern.
Overstaying a visa is why the person is in removal proceedings; it should be viewed as a less serious deportable violation than trafficking in illegal substances or committing a violent crime.
The choices for avoiding removal proceedings: Applicants may petition the immigration court for relief from deportation using asylum applications, status adjustments, or a cancellation order. An applicant for relief who might be able to stay in the US and avoid deportation should be given less priority for removal than an applicant with no other options.
