This Thursday, July 15, the U.S. Department of Justice returned to Immigration Judges the discretionary power to order the Administrative closure of certain Deportation cases so that the undocumented Immigrant has the opportunity to have a legal pathway in obtaining their documents; in this sense, it reversed one of the Trump Administration’s measures issued in 2018, which prevented undocumented immigrants in this country from seeking legalization alternatives, by annulling the discretion that Immigration Judges had to close or dismiss pending deportation cases even with the objection of the Prosecutor’s Office, which has caused long delays in the resolution of immigration cases.
It is estimated that more than one million cases have accumulated in the Immigration Courts as a consequence of this measure of annulment of the Judges’ discretion, which has meant that people with immigration cases have to wait up to four years or more to defend them before a Court.
