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The Supreme Court stripped immigration judges of the ability to pause certain deportation proceedings on Tuesday, declining to block a deal slammed as “egregious collusion” between the Justice Department and the state of Texas.

The unsigned order on Tuesday halts the practice known as “administrative closure,” which allows judges to pause deportation cases. The practice affects thousands of cases a year, and has been granted 360,000 times since 1990, according to statistics by the Executive Office for Immigration Review.

The procedure clears a judge’s dockets while other circumstances surrounding the migrant are resolved, including appeals of criminal cases or if they are seeking humanitarian protections or other legal status. It can also give some people relief in difficult circumstances, such as those who were the victims of certain crimes or children who were abused or abandoned.

Data has previously shown that most immigrants whose cases return to court after administrative closure are ultimately allowed to stay in the U.S.

The first Trump administration had said that judges lacked the authority to perform........

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