Matter of Castro-Tum: Restriction on General Administrative Closure Authority
Validated finding · five-country-2010-20260922-v118-evidence-presentation-fix
Policy effect
Overrules Matter of Avetisyan (2012) and Matter of W-Y-U- (2017), holding that immigration judges and the Board of Immigration Appeals lack general authority to suspend immigration proceedings indefinitely through administrative closure, limiting closure strictly to cases where an existing regulation or judicially approved settlement explicitly authorizes it. Phase scope: Applies nationally to all EOIR immigration court and BIA proceedings.
Official source excerpt
Quoted verbatim from the official source below. Ellipses indicate omitted text.
(1) Immigration judges and the Board do not have the general authority to suspend indefinitely immigration proceedings by administrative closure. To the extent the Board’s decisions in Matter of Avetisyan, 25 I&N Dec. 688 (BIA 2012), and Matter of W-Y-U-, 27 I&N Dec. 17 (BIA 2017), are inconsistent with this conclusion, those decisions are overruled. (2) Immigration judges and the Board may only administratively close a case where a previous regulation or a previous judicially approved settlement expressly authorizes such an action.
Review method
Two separate automated exact-claim source reviews
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Other United States changes operative in 2018
- 2018-01-19Requirement to Articulate Particular Social Groups Before the Immigration Judge (Matter of W-Y-C- & H-O-B-)
- 2018-03-05Vacatur of Requirement for Full Evidentiary Hearings in Asylum Claims (Matter of E-F-H-L-)
- 2018-04-06Zero-Tolerance Policy for Southwest Border Offenses Under 8 U.S.C. § 1325(a)
- 2018-05-15Tenant-occupancy methodology withdrawn for EB-5 job forecasts
- 2018-06-11Matter of A-B-, 27 I&N Dec. 316 (A.G. 2018), Interim Decision #3929
- 2018-08-16Standards for Continuances to Pursue Collateral Relief in Removal Proceedings (Matter of L-A-B-R-)
- 2018-09-11Outright Denials Without Request for Evidence (RFE) or Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID) (PM-602-0163)
- 2018-09-18Limitation on Immigration Judges' Inherent Authority to Terminate or Dismiss Removal Proceedings (Matter of S-O-G- & F-D-B-)
- 2018-10-01Expanded Issuance of Notices to Appear (NTAs) for Denied Status-Impacting Applications
- 2018-10-04Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2019
- 2018-11-01Medical-report validity recalculated from the civil surgeon signature