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Independent topical source of current affairs, opinion and issues, featuring stories making news in Canada from immigrants, newcomers, minorities & ethnic communities' point of view and interests.

Judges: People and Closures

judges: The attorney general invited feedback from advocates and others, after which time he may issue new instructions for immigration judges closures have been a lifeline to immigrants who apply for citizenship, permanent residency or other visas, shielding them from deportation while their petitions are vetted, according to Metro News. But critics say judges too often let people stay in the country longer than they should in a sort of legal purgatory. Sessions posed detailed questions challenging the use of administrative closures, an increasingly common outcome that allows people to stay in the country without legal status. About 350,000 cases are administratively closed, and the Justice Department said 180,000 cases were closed in four years of the Obama administration, more than in the previous 22 years. Immigration judges are employees of the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review, giving the attorney general broad oversight powers even as they assert independence. In 2012, the department's Board of Immigration Appeals ruled that neither Homeland Security Department attorneys seeking to deport someone nor the immigrant trying to stay could stop a judge from closing a case, paving the way for the increase. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.