SCOTUS Rules Unanimously Against Immigrants Entering Illegally to Permanently Stay in U.S.

The Supreme Court of the United States has reached a unanimous decision against illegal aliens who seek to permanently stay in the U.S. after crossing illegally. Breitbart reports, “the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) on Monday held that illegal aliens who were subsequently given Temporary Protected Status (TPS) are not eligible for green cards to permanently remain in the U.S.”

Perhaps president Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris need to be meeting the highest court judges, rather than grovel at the feet of South American leaders. Former President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court Justice pick Elena Kagan wrote the court’s opinion for the 9-0 decision that a “TPS recipient who entered the United States unlawfully is not eligible…for [lawful permanent resident] status merely by dint of his TPS.”

“The question here is whether the conferral of TPS enables him to obtain [lawful permanent resident] status despite his unlawful entry,” Kagan wrote in the Court’s opinion. “We hold that it does not.” The lawsuit relates to Jose Santos Sanchez, an illegal alien from El Salvador who came to the U.S. illegally in 1997.

Sanchez challenged the denial of his green card application from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on the grounds that he first entered the U.S. illegally in 2014. Sanchez won in a federal district court, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed the decision finding that because he first entered the U.S. illegally, he was not eligible for a green card under federal immigration law.

Kagan’s opinion for the court states:

There is no dispute that Sanchez “entered the United States in the late 1990s unlawfully, without inspection.” But as earlier described, §1255 requires a [lawful permanent resident] applicant like Sanchez to have entered the country “lawful[ly],” with “inspection” — that is, to have been admitted. Indeed, §1255 imposes an admission requirement twice over. Its principal provision states that an applicant for [lawful permanent resident] status must have been “inspected and admitted or paroled into the United States.” [Emphasis added]

And another provision says that a person who has worked without authorization in the country — as Sanchez did for several years — may become a [lawful permanent resident] only if his presence in the United States is “pursuant to a lawful admission.” Sanchez has never claimed that he can, without aid from the TPS provision, satisfy those demands for admission. A straightforward application of §1255 thus supports the Government’s decision to deny him [lawful permanent resident] status. [Emphasis added]

And nothing in the conferral of TPS changes that result. [Emphasis added]