IIRIRA (1996)
Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, creating expedited removal and sharply curtailing immigration judges' discretion to grant relief. It also made it harder for children and others to pause proceedings.
Immigration judges lost much of their power to grant relief, and removal proceedings sped up dramatically.
The law set a precedent for statutory changes stripping judicial discretion in immigration — the same mechanism now at work through the Texas ruling interpretation.
Shows how legal changes can remove immigration judges' discretion, just as the Texas ruling interpretation does now.
