The Political Insider

On Monday, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that illegal immigrants are not eligible for green cards based solely on whether they have “Temporary Protected Status.”

Liberal Obama appointee Justice Elena Kagan wrote the opinion for the Court which unanimously came out against the position.

The case stems from Jose Santos Sanchez, who illegally crossed the border in 1993, was granted Temporary Protected Status in 2001, and was turned down from getting a green card in 2014.

Liberal Kagan Writes SCOTUS Opinion

Kagan wrote, “Petitioner Jose Santos Sanchez entered this country unlawfully from El Salvador. Years later, because of unsafe living conditions in that country, the Government granted him Temporary Protected Status (TPS), entitling him to stay and work in the United States for as long as those conditions persist.”

“Sanchez now wishes to become a lawful permanent resident (LPR) of the United States. The question here is whether the conferral of TPS enables him to obtain LPR status despite his unlawful entry,” Kagan continued.

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“We hold that it does not,” she wrote, speaking for the nation’s highest court.

Kagan noted that in Sanchez v. Mayorkas, U.S. immigration law, “applied according to its plain terms,” thus preventing “Sanchez from becoming an LPR. There is no dispute that Sanchez ‘entered the United States in the late 1990s unlawfully, without inspection.’”

Many Democrats Were Behind Creating Loophole

Proponents of the loophole had argued that if an illegal immigrant obtains temporary protected status due to violence or bad conditions in their country of origin, he or she can be considered “admitted” to potentially obtain an LPR status.

SCOTUS Court ruled on Monday that this provision does not forgive someone entering the country illegally.

Perhaps surprisingly, the Biden administration fully argued against Sanchez.

Kagan’s opinion concluded that U.S. law “generally requires a lawful admission before a person can obtain LPR status. Sanchez was not lawfully admitted, and his TPS does not alter that fact. He therefore cannot become a permanent resident of this country.”

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Many Democrats wanted the loophole, including Sens. Mazi Hirono, Richard Blumenthal, Ed Markey, Elizabeth Warren, and Sheldon Whitehouse.

House Democrats who backed Sanchez’s claim included Reps. Diana DeGette, Adriano Espaillat, Darren Soto, and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.

Democratic attorneys from 19 states along with Washington, D.C. also supported the illegal immigration loophole.