Automated Summary
Key Facts
The respondent, an 18-year-old native and citizen of Guatemala, entered the United States without inspection on December 23, 2023, when he was 16 years old. He filed a visa petition for special immigrant juvenile classification under section 101(a)(27)(J) of the Immigration and Nationality Act on April 23, 2025, with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, and filed a motion to administratively close his removal proceedings to await USCIS adjudication. The Immigration Judge granted the motion over DHS' objection. The Board of Immigration Appeals sustained DHS' appeal, vacated the administrative closure decision, and reinstated the removal proceedings due to the respondent's failure to submit evidence of prima facie eligibility for special immigrant juvenile classification and the extended delay in visa availability for special immigrant juveniles.
Issues
The sole issue on appeal is whether it was appropriate for the Immigration Judge to administratively close the respondent's removal proceedings to await the adjudication of his special immigrant juvenile petition pending before USCIS. The Board determined that administrative closure was inappropriate due to the respondent's failure to submit evidence of prima facie eligibility and the extended delay in visa availability.
Holdings
The Board of Immigration Appeals sustained the appeal, vacated the Immigration Judge's June 20, 2025, decision granting administrative closure, and reinstated the respondent's removal proceedings.
Remedies
The Board sustained the appeal, vacated the Immigration Judge's June 20, 2025 decision administratively closing the respondent's removal proceedings, reinstated the removal proceedings, and remanded the record to the Immigration Judge for further proceedings consistent with the opinion.
Legal Principles
Administrative closure is a docket management tool used to temporarily remove a case from an Immigration Judge's active calendar or from the Board's docket, not a form of relief from removal. When determining appropriateness of administrative closure over objection, Immigration Judges must consider multiple regulatory factors including: the reason sought, basis for opposition, requirement for closure to file DHS petition, likelihood of success on the petition, anticipated duration, responsibility for delays, anticipated outcome, and ICE detention status. Special immigrant juvenile classification requires the alien to be unmarried and under 21 at petition filing, physically present in the United States, and subject to a juvenile court order declaring dependency or legal custody, with determinations that parental reunification is not viable and return to country of nationality is not in best interest. Review of administrative closure decisions is conducted de novo, and closure based on pendency of collateral matter requires some foreseeable resolution within a reasonably short period of time.
Precedent Name
- Matter of Avetisyan
- Matter of Gomez-Beltran
- Matter of B-N-K-
- INS v. Abudu
Cited Statute
- Code of Federal Regulations
- Immigration and Nationality Act
Judge Name
- Chief Appellate Immigration Judge MALPHRUS
- Appellate Immigration Judge HUNSUCKER
- Appellate Immigration Judge VOLKERT
Passage Text
- The only evidence submitted by the respondent in support of his request for administrative closure is a receipt notice from USCIS showing that he filed a petition for special immigrant juvenile classification. The respondent did not present any other evidence demonstrating his prima facie eligibility. Submitting the juvenile court order is particularly important to establishing prima facie eligibility because we otherwise have no way of knowing whether the respondent is subject to a juvenile court order that satisfies the regulatory requirements.
- Given the respondent's failure to submit evidence of his prima facie eligibility for special immigrant juvenile classification and the extended delay in the availability of a visa, the Immigration Judge erred in granting administrative closure.
- The priority date for the respondent's visa petition is April 23, 2025. As explained above, visas for special immigrant juveniles are only currently available to aliens who filed their petitions prior to July 1, 2020. Considering the extensive, nearly 5-year gap between the currently eligible priority date and the respondent's priority date, it is not realistic to expect the respondent to become eligible for relief from removal based on his special immigrant juvenile petition within a 'reasonably short period of time.'