Judge deals severe blow to Trump admin’s ploy to force through deportations

The Trump administration was dealt a major blow Monday after a federal judge blocked an effort to severely limit appeals to immigration judges’ decisions, including deportations, marking just the latest setback in President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

The Trump administration issued a rule in early February designed to “streamline administrative appellate review by the Board of Immigration Appeals,” a rule that would have made appealing an immigration judge’s ruling far more difficult.

In his ruling on Monday, however, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss blocked the Trump administration’s implementation of the new rule, writing in his decision that the change represented “an unconsidered and unlawful effort to erode the fundamental fairness of immigration removal proceedings, posing extraordinary (and at times insurmountable) barriers to their organizational missions and ability to represent their clients.”

Trump’s immigration policy has dragged down the Republican Party’s favorability as the 2026 midterm elections approach, particularly on the issue of immigration, once among his strongest performing issues.