Supreme Court Urged to Halt Deportation of Man Who Wrongly Claimed to Be US Citizen; Justices Weigh Whether Federal Courts Have Jurisdiction Over Appeals in Immigration Proceedings, and related stories

Supreme Court Urged to Halt Deportation of Man Who Wrongly Claimed to Be US Citizen:

Lawyers for both the Biden administration and a longtime illegal alien who falsely stated he was a U.S. citizen on a driver’s license application told a skeptical Supreme Court on Dec. 6 that a federal appeals court erred when it ruled a deportation order against the man should be allowed to stand.

How the high court rules in this case could create a legal standard regarding how much, if any, discretion judges have in cases in which aliens are seeking green cards.

The appeal at hand is Patel v. Garland, court file 20-979, which comes from an Aug. 19, 2020, ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. The hearing, which was dominated largely by discussions of the meanings of legal terminology, lasted 92 minutes, exceeding the allotted hour.

Pankajkumar S. Patel is a citizen of India who has resided in the United States since entering the country unlawfully in February 1992. He is married to co-petitioner Jyotsnaben P. Patel and together, they have three children.

Patel checked a box on a driver’s license application in Georgia identifying himself as a U.S. citizen, even though he was eligible for a license regardless of his lack of citizenship. He later claimed he checked the box inadvertently and then tried to obtain lawful permanent resident status under a process authorized by Congress called “adjustment of status” that allows individuals physically present in the country to upgrade their immigration law status to lawful permanent resident without having to leave the country. —>READ MORE HERE

Justices weigh whether federal courts have jurisdiction over appeals in immigration proceedings:

After spending nearly three decades in the United States, a citizen of India is facing deportation after he “falsely represented” himself regarding his citizenship status on a Georgia driver’s license application, according to court records.

The Supreme Court on Monday heard arguments in the case Patel v. Garland, examining whether federal courts have jurisdiction over appeals in immigration proceedings in a process known as “adjustment of status,” which allows immigrants already in the U.S. to become lawful green card holders without first leaving the country. A decision in the case could ultimately set the standard for judicial discretion in cases in which immigrants are requesting citizenship status.

In 2012, Pankajkumar Patel was placed in a deportation proceeding before an immigration judge and was charged with being present in the U.S. without admission or parole. Patel renewed his application for adjustment as a defense to deportation. However, the Department of Homeland Security denied the request, arguing the plaintiff was ineligible because he erroneously marked “yes” on a document asking if he was a U.S. citizen, despite his claim he checked the citizen box by mistake. —>READ MORE HERE

Follow links below to related stories:

SCOTUS Considers Role of Judges in Green Card Proceedings

Justices Appear to Back Immigrants on Court Review Question

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