Supreme Court Makes It Harder For Undocumented Immigrants To Fight Deportation

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday made it more difficult for undocumented immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for a long time to fight deportation. The court’s 5-to-3 ruling came in the case of a man who had lived in the U.S. for 25 years but who had used a fake Social Security card to get a job as a janitor.

Clemente Pereida was fined $100 under Nebraska state law after he pleaded no contest to the crime of “attempted criminal impersonation.” The lower courts ruled the conviction was enough to trigger his deportation because it was a crime of “moral turpitude” under state law.

That finding, in turn, meant that Pereida was ruled ineligible when he appealed to the attorney general to cancel his deportation because of the impact it would have on his son, a U.S. citizen, and the rest of his family. The attorney general does have such discretion but not if the applicant has been found guilty of a crime of “moral turpitude.”