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Supreme Court Allows Trump-Era Deportation Rule to Stand

11:12 AM ETConfirmed

Politics Desk

In Short: The Supreme Court, with no noted dissents, has allowed an agreement between Texas and the Department of Justice to go into effect, ending a Biden-era immigration rule that established procedures for immigration judges to temporarily pause certain deportation proceedings.

The Supreme Court, with no noted dissents, has allowed an agreement between Texas and the Department of Justice to go into effect, ending a Biden-era immigration rule that established procedures for immigration judges to temporarily pause certain deportation proceedings.

The Biden administration adopted the rule in 2024, allowing judges to manage overwhelming caseloads while giving migrants, including crime victims and neglected children, time to pursue legal options to remain in the United States.

In August, three cities with large immigrant populations—Baltimore, Maryland; New Haven, Connecticut; and Columbus, Ohio—joined with Centro Legal de la Raza, an immigrant legal advocacy group, to defend the Biden-era rule on appeal.

Federal lawyers argued that the cities and their allies lacked legal standing to challenge the agreement because they had not demonstrated the concrete injury required for a federal court to consider their claims.

The cities and Centro Legal de la Raza asked the Supreme Court to temporarily block the lower court's judgment while their appeal proceeded, accusing Texas and the federal government of engaging in 'egregious collusion' to eliminate the Biden-era rule.

Texas sued the federal government in June, arguing that the rule was adopted without proper legal authority. A judge issued a permanent injunction blocking the policy, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit declined to pause the decision while the challengers appealed.

The conservative-majority Supreme Court handed the Trump administration another big immigration win on Tuesday, allowing the agreement to stand and stripping away a procedure that allowed certain deportation cases to be put on hold.

What this adds

Background

What's confirmed

• In August, however, three cities with large immigrant populations — Baltimore, Maryland; New Haven, Connecticut; and Columbus, Ohio — joined with Centro Legal de la Raza, an immigrant legal advocacy group, in an effort to intervene in the case and defend the Biden-era rule on appeal.
• Texas challenged it in federal court, and a judge issued a permanent injunction blocking the policy.
• The practice, known as administrative closure, allows judges to manage overwhelming caseloads while giving some migrants, including crime victims and neglected children, time to pursue legal options to remain in the United States.
• The Trump administration and Texas urged the Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon to leave in place their consent agreement abolishing a Biden-era regulation that had allowed immigration judges to suspend some deportation proceedings.
• The justices “cleared the way for the Trump administration to restrict a Biden-era policy that allows immigration judges to use their discretion to close thousands of deportation cases each year,” The Washington Post reported.
• When Trump returned to office in 2025, his administration stopped defending the rule.
• Baltimore, Columbus, Ohio, and New Haven, Connecticut, along with an immigrant rights group, unsuccessfully sought to intervene before appealing to the Supreme Court.

What's still developing

• The Department of Justice agreed with Texas, asking the judge overseeing the case to vacate the rule and prevent similar rules from being adopted in the future.
• Opponents accused Texas and the Justice Department of colluding to eliminate the Biden-era rule, arguing that the two sides worked together despite being on opposite sides of the lawsuit.
• The so-called “Safe Third Countries” are nations that were never named on a migrant’s removal order.
• The 42-page application is the third time the administration has brought this fight to the high court.
• The regulation, known as "administrative closure," gives immigration judges discretion to temporarily pause deportation proceedings for migrants while the migrants seek humanitarian protections or other forms of legal status in the country.
• Saturday, October 24, 2026 · 7:03 PM ET Updated 7:03 PM ET · 6:15 PM ET Confirmed In Short: The Supreme Court granted the Trump administration's request to continue rapid third-country deportation of immigrants, while also temporarily upholding a Trump-era agreement.
• The deportations represent the first wave of a broader agreement with Naypyitaw that could see up to 5,000 Myanmar nationals returned.
• Represented by the group Democracy Forward, they argued that Texas and the Trump administration had worked together to allow the regulation to be permanently blocked in court, bypassing a public rulemaking process.
• Texas officials sued the federal government over the rule in June, but hours after the lawsuit was filed, the Department of Justice said it agreed with Texas that the rule should be set aside, leading U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, a nominee of former President George W.
• “If a judgment procured through such open collusion is allowed to remain in effect, any agency can avoid the strictures of the APA by advertising its unwillingness to defend a disfavored regulation and by immediately acquiescing to nationwide relief,” the emergency petition from the cities said.
• He described the people it targets as “some of the worst of the worst criminal aliens” whose home countries will not accept them.
• The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to let it resume deporting illegal aliens to “Safe Third Countries” if migrants cannot be sent to their home countries.

Sources

• Fox Newslink
• Fox11Onlinelink
• Scotusbloglink
• Breitbartlink
• Rawstorylink
• Abcnewslink
• Local12link
• Warpbeatlink
• Wtoplink
• Washingtonexaminerlink
• Komonewslink
• Idahonewslink
• WarpBeat — background on Supreme Court Urged to Uphold Trump-Era Deportation Agreement link
• WarpBeat — background on Supreme Court to Hear Trump-Era Immigration Cases link
• USA TODAY — video link