Supreme Court Grants Illegal Immigrants More Opportunities to Avoid Deportation

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday to allow a lower court to review and potentially overturn an immigration judge’s determination to deport an illegal immigrant, with possible implications for the removal of criminal aliens. In a 6–3 split decision on March 19, the Supreme Court said that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit erred in determining that it lacked jurisdiction to review a discretionary determination by an immigration judge. The immigration judge had denied an illegal immigrant’s request to avoid deportation and remain in the United States based on one of four statutory criteria for relief from deportation, namely that of an “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” to the child of the would-be deportee....