The Department of Justice’s plan to automatically dismiss immigration cases on appeal is unlawful, a federal judge ruled late Sunday.
The order came a day before a new rule was set to take effect that would have resulted in the dismissal of most cases without the appellate board considering the merits.
Under an interim final rule published in early February, appeals would be automatically dismissed if the majority of the Board of Immigration Appeals judges, who are DOJ employees, didn’t accept the cases within 10 days. The rule also shortened the time immigrants had to file most appeals from 30 days to 10 and allowed dismissal decisions before transcripts of the proceedings became available. The Justice Department framed the change as a way to deal with the backlog in immigration courts.