In a three-page order signed on Nov. 27, Wiseman dismissed all pending immigration/deportation cases, and said the Attorney General’s office may refer deportation cases to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, which is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, “as they see fit.”
“Any and all petitions and other forms of litigations dealing with immigration matters brought to the Attorney General’s Office and the Division of Immigration now pending, without a final order of deportation, before the Commonwealth Superior Court are hereby dismissed,” Wiseman said on Friday, a day before federal immigration law took effect here.
Wiseman’s order officially closed the 32-year immigration court calendar that he had handled the past eight years.
“This court will no longer have any authority to determine the immigration status of any person before the court, including more than [200] cases now pending. The legal immigration status of those respondents pending before the court, as well as any others will now be determined by the U.S. immigration officials,” Wiseman explained.
He said the court order he issued was “the final and last order of one of the only two non-federal immigration courts under the United States Flag.”
American Samoa is now the only U.S. territory exempted from federal immigration law.
“[The final court order] is one of historical significance as it marks the end of an unusual era and closes the chapter on what could be categorized as one of the most unique immigration arrangements in U.S. history,” Wiseman said.
