Attorney General Decision Restores Ability of Immigration Judges to Terminate Removal

Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a recent decision that restored immigration judges’ authority to terminate removal proceedings in Matter of Coronado Acevedo. 

Matter of Coronado Acevedo, 28 I&N Dec. 648 (A.G. 2022) overruled a prior decision by then Attorney General Jeff Sessions that held that immigration judges “have no inherent authority to terminate or dismiss removal proceedings.” Matter of S-O-G- & F-D-B-, 27 I&N Dec. 462 (A.G. 2018) Id. at 463. This prior decision adversely impacted many noncitizens, particularly those with applications for collateral relief pending before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, such as T and U visa applicants, DACA applicants, and Violence Against Women Act self-petitioners. In those decisions the AG relied on his own reasoning from Matter of Castro-Tum, 27 I&N Dec. 271 (A.G. 2018) (a decision he issued earlier this year that restricts IJs’ and Board of Immigration Appeals’  authority to control their own dockets), in order to arrive at his conclusion. 

Pending the outcome of the rulemaking process, Garland confirmed that termination of proceedings is appropriate in certain circumstances, including the following: when a noncitizen has obtained lawful permanent residence after being placed in removal proceedings; where the pendency of removal proceedings causes adverse immigration consequences for a noncitizen who must travel abroad to obtain a visa; or where termination is necessary for the noncitizen to be eligible to seek immigration relief before USCIS. Until such time as a final regulation is issued, immigration judges and the Board of Immigration Appeals should be permitted to consider and, where appropriate, grant termination in these types of limited circumstances. 

The decision in Matter of Coronado Acevedo, 28 I&N Dec. 648 (A.G. 2022) restores the Immigration Judge's authority to terminate proceedings in cases where the respondent clearly has relief available and may even have an approved application from USCIS already and is simply waiting on a visa to become available or is stuck in USCIS' insanely long processing times.