by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Washington D.C. Bureau Chief
(Worthy News) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an emergency request to reinstate a Biden-era immigration regulation that allowed judges to suspend certain deportation proceedings, delivering another legal victory to President Donald Trump’s administration as it moves to tighten immigration enforcement.
In a brief, unsigned order, the justices declined to block an agreement between the Trump administration and Texas that permanently invalidated the 2024 regulation. No justices publicly dissented.
The regulation permitted immigration judges to use a procedure known as administrative closure, temporarily removing deportation cases from active court dockets while immigrants pursued other legal remedies, including asylum claims, visa petitions, or relief available to crime victims.
Texas challenged the regulation, arguing that the policy allowed illegal immigrants to remain in the United States indefinitely without resolving their deportation cases. The Trump administration agreed with the state’s position, and U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor approved a consent judgment blocking the rule nationwide in June.
Three Democratic-led cities—Baltimore, Maryland; Columbus, Ohio; and New Haven, Connecticut—joined immigration advocacy organization Centro Legal de la Raza in challenging the agreement.
The cities argued that eliminating administrative closure would harm immigrant communities and undermine protections for crime victims and vulnerable children. They also accused the administration of circumventing federal rulemaking requirements by working with Texas to overturn the regulation through litigation.
However, the Justice Department maintained that the challengers lacked legal standing and had failed to demonstrate immediate, irreparable harm.
The Supreme Court’s refusal to intervene leaves the nationwide injunction in place while the challengers pursue their appeal.
The ruling represents another significant development in the Trump administration’s broader effort to reverse Biden-era immigration policies and accelerate deportation proceedings. However, the justices did not decide the underlying legal merits of the regulation.
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