In what will undoubtedly go down as a landmark decision, the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday that certain undocumented aliens living in this country will never be allowed to become United States citizens. The 9-0 ruling applies to hundreds of thousands of people who entered the country illegally.
Justice Elena Kagan wrote the opinion for the High Court which stated federal immigration law prohibits people who entered the country illegally – even if they have “Temporary Protected Status” (TPS) — from seeking “green cards” to remain in the country permanently.
The TPS designation generally applies to people who come from countries ravaged by war or natural disasters. It protects them from deportation and allows them to work here legally. There are hundreds of thousands of people from over a dozen countries with TPS status.
The case before the Supreme Court involved a couple from El Salvador who have been in the US since the 1990s and focused on whether people who entered the country illegally and were given humanitarian protections were ever “admitted” into the United States under immigration law.
Kagan wrote that they were not. “The TPS program gives foreign nationals nonimmigrant status, but it does not admit them. So, the conferral of TPS does not make an unlawful entrant…eligible” for a green card, she wrote. In other words, they cannot become citizens.
This means TPS recipients who entered the county legally as students or tourists, and stayed under TPS may obtain a green card, added Justice Kagan. But the same is not true of those who entered illegally.
“Because a grant of TPS does not come with a ticket of admission, it does not eliminate the disqualifying effect of an unlawful entry,” she wrote in the (Jose)Sanchez vs. Mayorkas case.
“Sanchez was not lawfully admitted, and his TPS does not alter that fact,” she wrote. “He therefore cannot become a permanent resident of this country.”
Lower courts had been divided over whether these migrants, many of whom have lived here for decades, may apply for and receive lawful permanent status. Four years ago, the 9th Circuit Court in California ruled that TPS recipients had a lawful status, and therefore, were eligible for green cards — even if they had entered the country illegally.
As Justice Kagan noted in her opinion, legislation pending in Congress could resolve the issue for the TPS holders who were affected by the latest decision. Under the American Dream and Promise Act of 2021, non-citizens with TPS, or those who are eligible for it on or after September 2017 and meet certain requirements, would be allowed to apply for a green card. The stand-alone bill passed the House in March but faces an uphill battle in the Senate.
The outcome of the Sanchez case was not a surprise. During arguments in April, the Court’s conservative majority – and even several of its liberals – appeared skeptical of the immigrants’ claim. Even critics of TPS say the program is intended to provide temporary relief from deportation, not permanent residence.
What was a surprise was the fact that the Justices ruled unanimously in this controversial case. The decision comes after presidential administrations have wrestled for years with how to stem the flow of migrants fleeing Central America, many of whom come to the United States seeking asylum from violence and instability.
Illegal Border Crossings Highest in 15 Years
Meanwhile, preliminary data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) indicates the number of illegal aliens coming into the United States from Mexico is the highest since 2006, with four months remaining in the fiscal year.
Since October 1, 2020, nearly 1 million migrants have been apprehended by CBP. In March and April, 170,000 people were captured each month, marking a 20-year high. While the majority of migrants are coming in from Mexico, others have flooded in from Ecuador, Venezuela, Cuba, and Haiti, as well as the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
May is expected to be the third consecutive month CBP has recorded more than 170,000 border-crossings, which has not occurred since 2000. About 6,000 migrants were apprehended daily at the border in April, while March saw about 5,560 each day.
It will be most interesting to see how the Biden administration chooses to handle the border crisis now that the Supreme Court has ruled 9-0 against the immigrants in the Sanchez case. Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Guatemala and Mexico this week, a trip which was widely considered a bust.
Who knows what will happen next?
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