Supreme Court won't intervene to allow judges to pause some deportation proceedings

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court declined to intervene Tuesday in a dispute over a Biden-era immigration regulation that allowed immigration judges to pause some deportation proceedings.

The high court turned down a request from Democratic-led cities who say the rule was used to help crime victims and neglected juveniles and should be revived.

Texas and the Trump administration agreed to a court order blocking the regulation after the state sued. Texas alleged that the practice called administrative closure was dramatically expanded under former President Joe Biden and effectively allowed people to stay in the country indefinitely.

The cities of Baltimore, Columbus, Ohio and New Haven, Connecticut, along with the legal group Centro Legal de la Raza, had asked to join the case to defend the regulation. They filed an emergency appeal before the Supreme Court after a judge refused to allow them to intervene.

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.

The Justice Department had urged the justices to deny the appeal, saying the cities had no legal standing to challenge the settlement and they had not shown they'd suffer immediate legal harm.