Court raises bar for some immigrants to avoid deportation

In a 5-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled against a Mexican citizen who entered the United States illegally and has lived here for 25 years. The justices’ decision on Thursday will make it harder for longtime immigrants who have been convicted of a crime to avoid being deported.

What sparked the case? Authorities in Nebraska charged Clemente Avelino Pereida with using a fraudulent Social Security card to get a job and convicted him under a state law against criminal impersonation. Not all criminal convictions inevitably lead to deportation, but “certain nonpermanent aliens seeking to cancel a lawful removal order must prove that they have not been convicted of a disqualifying crime,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority. He said Pereida had not done that. The court’s three liberal justices dissented. Justice Amy Coney Barrett did not take part in the case because she had not yet joined the court when it heard oral arguments in October.

Dig deeper: Read Charissa Koh’s report in Compassion on the migrant children in the United States who are still separated from their families.