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Sessions’s decision came in May in the Matter of Castro-Tum. As attorney general, Sessions has the power to issue a decision on any case. After the Board of Immigration Appeals ordered the judge to reopen Castro-Tum, Sessions issued a broad ruling that meant that judges no longer have the authority to administratively close cases and all previously closed cases should be reopened. “Immigration judges and the Board do not have the general authority to suspend indefinitely immigration proceedings by administrative closure,” Sessions wrote.
The ruling may affect 51,069 cases in New York that, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), were administratively closed in immigration courts between fiscal years 1998 and 2017. BuzzFeed reported that nearly 8,000 cases have already been re-calendared nationwide this year.
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