Your Guide to Fighting Back: Stopping Deportation and Removal

When You Need to Stop Removal Proceedings: What You Can Do Right Now

Stop removal proceedings is possible through several legal paths — and knowing your options quickly can make all the difference.

Ways to stop or fight removal proceedings:

• Cancellation of Removal - Apply if you’ve lived in the U.S. for 10+ years (non-permanent residents) or hold LPR status for 5+ years

• Asylum - File within 1 year of entry if you fear persecution in your home country

• Adjustment of Status - Change your immigration status through a qualifying family or employment petition

• Prosecutorial Discretion - Request that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) close or dismiss your case based on humanitarian factors

• Voluntary Departure - Leave on your own terms to avoid a formal removal order and future reentry bars

• Appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) - Challenge a judge’s removal order within 30 days

• Motion to Reopen - Present new evidence or legal arguments within 90 days of a removal order

Facing deportation is one of the most frightening things a person or family can experience. Your entire future — your job, your home, your children’s lives — can feel like it’s on the line.

When Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issues a Notice to Appear (NTA), the clock starts ticking. From that moment, you’re in formal removal proceedings before an immigration court. The U.S. government will be working to remove you. You have the right to fight back — but the process is complex, the deadlines are strict, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.

The good news: there are real, proven legal strategies to stop removal proceedings. This guide walks you through each one — clearly and honestly — so you understand what options may apply to your situation.