NYT: The Post-Election Fate of Immigrants With Administratively Closed Cases in the Immigration Courts

This New York Times article by Caitlin Dickerson explores the uncertainty and anxiety surrounding immigrants whose immigration court cases were administratively closed pursuant to the Obama Administration’s prosecutorial discretion policies.  Administrative closure – when a case is taken off the immigration court’s active calendar, such that the government is no longer actively pursuing the deportation of the noncitizen – was relatively rare prior to the Obama Administration. 

The article notes that the number of immigration court cases resulting in administrative closure has increased 160 percent since 2012.  But, as Judy London, directing attorney at Public Counsel in Los Angeles, states, “People are increasingly frightened about how secure they are with this status… And the answer to that question is, there is no answer.”

-JKoh