Supreme Court orders green card holders: Border officials can deny permanent citizens re-entry if they are charged with a crime
The Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a major victory in an immigration case, saying the government was right to revoke the green cards of people accused of certain criminal activities upon their return to the United States. The 6-3 decision related to a 2012 decision by immigration officials to grant immigration parole to green card holder Muk Choi Lau after he returned from a brief trip abroad after he was charged with forgery.Liu argued that the official exceeded his authority and that the decision wrongly allowed the Department of Homeland Security to quickly initiate deportation proceedings after he pleaded guilty to trademark counterfeiting.
How is Mr. Liu doing?
Liu is a Chinese citizen who became a legal permanent resident in 2007. Five years later, in May 2012, he was arrested and charged in New Jersey for allegedly selling nearly $300,000 worth of counterfeit goods. He then briefly left the United States and returned in June of that year. Immigration officials determined that Liu’s pending charges made him inadmissible.He was only allowed to remain in the United States temporarily “to be prosecuted for forgery.” In 2013, he pleaded guilty to trademark counterfeiting, and an immigration judge ruled he should be deported as a result of his conviction.But a federal appeals court later ruled that immigration officials needed “clear and convincing evidence” that Liu actually committed the disqualifying offense, not just the pre-conviction charges, before deciding to deny him entry.Now, that ruling has been overturned by the Supreme Court, which empowers border officials to deny permanent residence to green card holders in such cases, even though the case preceded the Trump administration.Judge Clarence Thomas’ decision makes it easy for green card holders to be detained and deported even if they are accused of certain crimes and the charges are unproven. The ruling said border officials do not need “clear and convincing evidence” that a lawful permanent resident of the United States committed a serious crime before changing status.Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson disagreed, arguing it would give the government a massive blank check to rewrite immigration law.
