Judge Vacates Biden ‘Quiet Amnesty’ Rule

On June 22, the America First Legal Foundation (AFL) filed a complaint on behalf of the state of Texas challenging the Biden administration’s May 2024 “Administrative Closure Rule”, which expanded the use of a judicial tool originally intended to put aliens’ removal proceedings temporarily on ice while other adjudications were playing out into one that stayed those cases indefinitely. And that same day Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas (N.D. Texas) vacated the rule, a key element of what the staff at the House Judiciary Committee termed Biden’s “quiet amnesty”.