How the Trump administration pushed to reopen immigration cases, putting thousands at risk of deportation

More than 117,000 immigrants — at least half of whom have lived in the country a decade or more — face potential deportation after the Trump administration pushed to reopen cases previously paused by an immigration judge, an NBC News analysis shows. Most of those requests to reopen, also known as “re-calendaring” cases, were filed in Arizona, California, Florida and New York. In California, more than 30,000 cases were moved to be re-calendared, a 14,000% increase from the start of the Trump administration’s second term in January to October as compared to the same period in the last year of Joe Biden’s term. For decades, immigration judges have administratively closed cases, removing them from their court calendar without dismissing or completely closing them. Administrative closure helps judges manage court dockets and backlogs, Carmen Maria Rey Caldas, a former immigration judge, told NBC News. Judges may administratively close a case to give time for people who may be eligible for deportation relief — such as through asylum or a green card — to work through the frequently lengthy processes. Often the immigrants are considered low priorities for deportation because they have not committed serious crimes at the time, aren’t a homeland or public safety threat or have families or other ties to the U.S. “These are cases that were effectively tabled because for one reason or another they weren’t appropriate to proceed,” Rey Caldas said. But the Trump administration argued in a memo in April that administrative closure has been used as a policy tool by administrations “opposed to robust immigration enforcement.” The memo stated it contributes to immigration case backlogs, because it “kicks the can down the road.” Ad In an email to NBC News, the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review stated that administrative closure has made dockets worse by creating “a possibly unconstitutional and unlawful amnesty program that allows aliens to remain in the country indefinitely but does not definitively resolve their immigration status.” The administration’s recalendaring requests have left attorneys scrambling to find clients that they have not been in touch with for years, or who have died or left the country, several lawyers and judges told NBC News. Some attorneys said they were trying to piece together cases without the original lawyer. According to some attorneys, the notices to reopen cases sometimes contained incorrect information or showed that cases had not been individually reviewed before the notice was sent — including cases in which the immigrant had since been approved for a visa or legalized their status another way. The Office for Immigration Review said in its statement to NBC News that judges were not instructed to accept government requests to recalendar cases, but “are independent adjudicators and decide all matters before them on a case-by-case basis.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.