Limitation on Immigration Judges' Inherent Authority to Terminate or Dismiss Removal Proceedings (Matter of S-O-G- & F-D-B-)

Policy effect

The Attorney General issued a binding precedent decision holding that immigration judges have no inherent authority to terminate or dismiss removal proceedings outside the specific grounds expressly identified in governing regulations (8 C.F.R. § 1239.2(c), (f)) or when DHS fails to sustain charges of removability (8 C.F.R. § 1240.12(c)). Phase scope: Nationwide EOIR immigration court proceedings

Official source excerpt

Quoted verbatim from the official source below. Ellipses indicate omitted text.

(1) Consistent with Matter of Castro-Tum, 27 I&N Dec. 271 (A.G. 2018), immigration judges have no inherent authority to terminate or dismiss removal proceedings. (2) Immigration judges may dismiss or terminate removal proceedings only under the circumstances expressly identified in the regulations, see 8 C.F.R. § 1239.2(c), (f), or where the Department of Homeland Security fails to sustain the charges of removability against a respondent, see 8 C.F.R. § 1240.12(c). (3) An immigration judge’s general authority to “take any other action consistent with applicable law and regulations as may be appropriate,” 8 C.F.R. § 1240.1(a)(1)(iv), does not provide any additional authority to terminate or dismiss removal proceedings beyond those authorities expressly set out in the relevant regulations.

Review method

Two separate automated exact-claim source reviews

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• 2018-05-15Tenant-occupancy methodology withdrawn for EB-5 job forecasts
• 2018-05-17Matter of Castro-Tum: Restriction on General Administrative Closure Authority
• 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)
• 2018-10-01Expanded 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