U.S. Supreme Court blocks permanent residency for some immigrants
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[June 08, 2021]
By Andrew Chung
-The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday 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, siding with President Joe Biden's administration.
The justices, acting in an appeal by a married couple from El Salvador
who were granted so-called Temporary Protected Status, unanimously
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 thousands of immigrants, many of whom have lived
in the United States for years.
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.
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."
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.
The case involves Jose Sanchez and Sonia Gonzalez, who live in New
Jersey and have four children.
"We are of course highly disappointed the court decided against the
rights of immigrants who otherwise played by the rules like Mr. and Mrs.
Sanchez," said Jaime Aparisi, the couple's lawyer. "TPS recipients like
them have been living and working lawfully here for 20 years."
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People walk past the U.S. Supreme Court the day the court is set to
release orders and opinions in Washington, U.S., June 1, 2021.
REUTERS/Erin Scott
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to
a request for comment.
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.
U.S. officials rejected their 2014 applications for green cards
because they had not been lawfully admitted. They sued in federal
court, saying that those with lawful status, including Temporary
Protected Status recipients, are deemed to have been lawfully
admitted, and may apply for permanent residency. Last year, the
Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against
the couple.
Besides El Salvador, 11 other countries currently have such
designations: Haiti, Honduras, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia,
Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. Myanmar was the
latest addition to the list, placed there by Biden's administration
in the wake of a Feb. 1 military coup there.
The Supreme Court ruled in the case on a day when Vice President
Kamala Harris visited Guatemala as part of the Biden
administration's efforts to press that country as well as El
Salvador and Honduras to do more to tackle corruption to improve
social conditions and make people from those Central American
nations less eager to emigrate.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)
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