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This article analyzes the impact of a French administrative court’s change to foreigners’ rights in 2007. How did the Administrative Court of Paris deal with what was perceived as a massive increase in immigration litigation? The introduction of a new category of administrative decision intensified the use of managerial instruments. Working procedures were reorganized in order to respond to what was perceived as a “crisis.” Legal and managerial rationalities collided. This article ultimately shows how changes to legal procedures can turn into powerful tools for transforming immigration policy by lowering the political costs of such a transformation. The procedural changes generated conflicts about the role that administrative courts should assume in French immigration policy.