Sessions' 'administrative closures' ban will worsen immigration-case logjam, Professor Cooper tells Law360

Immigration Law Clinic Co-Director Holly S. Cooper told Law360 that Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ recent ban on “administrative closures” in immigration cases will further tax an already backlogged immigration courts system.

Sessions’ decision will return deportation cases that had been de-prioritized during the Obama administration to courts where there is no room for them, Cooper said. Immigration courts are already “overburdened and over-strapped,” she said, noting that Sessions’ move appears to be counterintuitive to his stated goal of reducing immigration court backlogs.

On May 18, Sessions ordered immigration judges to keep administrative proceedings open until issuing a decision, thus preventing judges from closing proceedings while petitions are being reviewed. Many immigration experts view administrative closures, which allow some people suspected of being in the United States without authorization to remain in the country at least temporarily, as a vital tool of docket management and prosecutorial discretion.

Professor Holly Cooper ’98, co-director of the Immigration Law Clinic, has extensive litigation experience defending the rights of immigrants and is a nationally recognized expert on immigration detention issues and on the immigration consequences of criminal convictions