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By Billal Rahman
Immigration Reporter
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A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from implementing a policy that would have let immigration authorities quickly dismiss certain appeals, ruling that the government must first follow formal rule-making procedures.
President Donald Trump's administration had planned to introduce a regulation that would allow immigration authorities to rapidly reject many appeals filed by migrants challenging deportation orders. The measure was scheduled to take effect on Monday and was intended to reduce a large backlog in the U.S. immigration court system.
However, U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued an order preventing the rule from taking effect.
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In his ruling, Moss said the Justice Department must complete the required notice-and-comment rulemaking process before enforcing the policy. Under federal administrative law, agencies generally must publish proposed regulations and allow the public to submit comments before adopting significant policy changes.
"This requirement ensures that those who may be affected by rules adopted outside the usual democratic processes receive 'at least some opportunity to make their views heard and to have them given serious consideration,'" the judge wrote in court documents.
The proposed rule concerned procedures at the Board of Immigration Appeals, the administrative body that reviews immigration judges' decisions. The administration sought to expand its ability to summarily dismiss certain appeals, arguing the change would help address delays and reduce the backlog of immigration cases.
During court proceedings in Washington, Moss pressed government lawyers on why the administration had not followed the standard rulemaking process. The judge ultimately concluded that the policy could not proceed without that step.
Moss' order temporarily blocks the policy while the legal challenge continues. The administration could seek to pursue the rule through the formal regulatory process or appeal the decision.
The judge ruled that the plaintiffs had a strong case against the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the DOJ agency overseeing immigration courts and appeals, finding it acted unlawfully "by fundamentally curtailing the availability of meaningful administrative review of adverse immigration decisions, without first providing an opportunity for notice and comment."
“Today’s decision makes it clear that the Trump-Vance administration cannot play games with the immigration appeals system to eliminate basic due process and fast-track deportations,” Erez Reuveni, senior counsel at Democracy Forward, who presented the oral argument, told Newsweek in a statement over email. “Once again, no matter how hard this administration tries to hide its cruel and unlawful actions behind an ‘immigration policy,’ a federal court has made clear that the government must follow the law and cannot strip people of their basic rights. This is another demonstration that litigation is powerful. We will continue representing our plaintiffs in court to defend their rights and hold this administration accountable.”
The dispute is the latest in a series of court challenges involving immigration policies introduced by the Trump administration. Federal courts have increasingly scrutinized efforts to ramp up immigration arrests and deportations and expand detention, particularly where policy changes affect long-standing immigration procedures. The United States Department of Homeland Security has at times criticized judges whose rulings slowed or blocked deportations, describing some of them as "activist judges."
Update 03/09/26, 10:25 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include a statement from Erez Reuveni, senior counsel at Democracy Forward.
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