The policy they’re referring to here is known as administrative closure. Immigration is complex and there are often multiple time-consuming factors at play (adjustment of status, asylum, family-based petition) that may impact a person’s eligibility and court case. Due to the growing backlog of immigration cases (more than 2 million), administrative closure is used to help prioritize the most crucial cases that can be adjudicated quickly.
Though administrative closure has been used effectively since 1983, the Trump Administration ended it in 2018. Since then, the efficiency of immigration proceedings has plummeted, increasing the backlog of cases by over 250,000 in just one year.
The argument against administrative closure is that it doesn’t follow the Immigration and Nationality Act as written. This is true, however, administrative closure has been one of the only effective ways of making meaningful progress in immigration cases (per the National Association of Immigration Judges and Board of Immigration Appeals). Without it, our immigration caseload will continue to grow more unmanageable. Additionally, immigrants who are already struggling with complex legalese and major life upheavals will face delays and barriers accessing services to help them.
