Supreme Court declines to restore Biden-era immigration deportation pause policy

On October 27, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an unsigned, one-sentence order declining to restore a Biden-era immigration policy that allowed immigration judges to pause deportation proceedings using administrative closure. The ruling leaves intact an agreement between the Trump administration and Texas that declared the rule unlawful, rejecting an emergency challenge from Baltimore, New Haven, Columbus, and Centro Legal de la Raza alleging manufactured litigation and federal collusion.

Supreme Court rejection of emergency request

• ▪The U.S. Supreme Court declined to restore a Biden-era policy that allowed immigration judges to temporarily close deportation cases through administrative closure
• ▪The Supreme Court issued a denial to restore administrative closure, the rule allowing judges to pause deportations, as a one-sentence order without an explanation or any noted dissents
• ▪Baltimore, New Haven, Columbus, and Centro Legal de la Raza submitted the emergency request asking the Supreme Court to halt the agreement between Texas and the Trump administration ending administrative closure

Texas lawsuit against administrative closure

• ▪The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to put the Texas-Trump administration agreement regarding administrative closure on hold pending an appeal
• ▪U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor rejected a bid by Baltimore, New Haven, Columbus, and Centro Legal de la Raza to intervene in Texas's lawsuit against the federal government to defend administrative closure
• ▪Baltimore, New Haven, Columbus, and Centro Legal de la Raza alleged in court filings that the Trump administration colluded with Texas using manufactured litigation to eliminate the Biden-era administrative closure regulation
• ▪Texas sued to challenge administrative closure, the rule allowing judges to pause deportations, on June 22, 2026, and U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor approved an agreement with the Trump administration declaring administrative closure unlawful that same day

Impact of ending administrative closure

• ▪Ending administrative closure affects hundreds of thousands of immigration cases by removing judges' discretion to pause deportation proceedings
• ▪Attorneys from Democracy Forward and Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann stated the Supreme Court's Tuesday order ending administrative closure puts vulnerable people at greater risk of deportation

Background on administrative closure policy

• ▪Immigration judges relied on administrative closure for decades to temporarily suspend deportation proceedings while migrants pursued legal status, humanitarian protections, or appeals
• ▪Texas and conservative politicians argued that administrative closure granted indefinite amnesty to immigrants residing in the United States without legal status
• ▪The Biden administration formally codified administrative closure procedures for pausing deportation proceedings in a 2024 regulation after a prior 2020 Trump administration rule was judicially blocked