The Supreme Court ruled Monday that up to 400,000 immigrants who gained temporary protected status but came here illegally won't be ab...
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that up to 400,000 immigrants who gained temporary protected status but came here illegally won't be able to get green cards – with liberal Justice Elana Kagan such status 'does not come with an admission ticket.'
The Supreme Court was unanimous in its refusal to let immigrants who have been allowed to stay in the United States on humanitarian grounds apply to become permanent residents if they entered the country illegally.
it impacts thousands of immigrants who fled to the U.S. following hurricanes and other disasters and who established residency with special protected status.
It came in a case where the Biden administration, which has been seeking to roll back Trump administration immigration policies, weighed in against the immigrants who sued.
The justices, acting in an appeal by a married couple from El Salvador who were granted so-called Temporary Protected Status, upheld a lower court ruling that barred their applications for permanent residency, also known as a green card, because of their unlawful entry.
The case could affect 400,000 immigrants, many of whom have lived in the United States for years.
It came down on a day when Vice President Kamala Harris was visiting Guatemala as part of a trip to address 'root causes' of immigration amid a flood of unaccompanied minors from Central America at the southern border.
President Joe Biden, who has sought to reverse many of Donald Trump's hardline immigration policies, had opposed the immigrants in this case, placing the president at odds with immigration advocacy groups and some of his fellow Democrats.
The Supreme Court on Monday unanimously refused to let immigrants who have been allowed to stay in the United States on humanitarian grounds apply to become permanent residents if they entered the country illegally. The case involves Jose Sanchez and Sonia Gonzalez from El Salvador (above), who entered the US twice illegally
A federal law called the Immigration and Nationality Act generally requires that people seeking to become permanent residents have been 'inspected and admitted' into the United States. At issue in the case was whether a grant of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which gives the recipient 'lawful status,' satisfies those requirements.
Writing for the court, liberal Justice Elena Kagan said that 'because a grant of TPS does not come with a ticket of admission, it does not eliminate the disqualifying effect of an unlawful entry.'
'The question here is whether the conferral of TPS enables him to obtain [Legal Permanent Residency] status despite his unlawful entry. We hold that it does not,' Kagan wrote.
She wrote that an admission is defined as 'the lawful entry of the alien into the United States after inspection and authorization by an officer.'
'The TPS program gives foreign nationals nonimmigrant status, but it does not admit them.'
Foreign nationals can be granted Temporary Protected Status if a humanitarian crisis in their home country, such as a natural disaster or armed conflict, would make their return unsafe.
There are about 400,000 people in the United States with protected status, which prevents deportation and lets them work legally.
Immigrants here under TPS come from such countries as El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Somalia, Haiti, and Yemen, nations which have experienced war, disasters, and other hardships.
The case involves Jose Sanchez and Sonia Gonzalez, who live in New Jersey and have four children.
The couple twice entered the United States illegally: in 1997 and 1998. After a series of earthquakes in 2001, the United States designated El Salvador as covered under the Temporary Protected Status program. The couple received protection under the program that same year.
The ruling comes as Vice President Kamala Harris (L) visited Guatemala to address root causes of migration. On Monday, she met with the President of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, greet after a meeting at the National Palace of Culture, in Guatemala City, Guatemala, 07 June 2021
Biden, who has sought to reverse many of his Republican predecessor Donald Trump's hardline immigration policies, had opposed the immigrants in this case, placing the president at odds with immigration advocacy groups and some of his fellow Democrats
No comments