SCOTUS Unanimously Rules Against Criminal Illegal Alien Trying to Stay in United States
In a surprising turn of events from the often wishy-washy U.S. Supreme Court, all nine justices unanimously ruled against a criminal illegal alien’s bid to block his second deportation.
On Monday, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor — a liberal appointed by former President Barack Obama — wrote in a 9-0 opinion that Refugio Palomar-Santiago, an illegal alien from Mexico, had no right to challenge his deportation following a DUI conviction.
In 1988, Palomar-Santiago was convicted of a felony DUI by a California state court. At the time, a conviction for a DUI (which was considered an “aggravated felony”) allowed for the deportation of an illegal alien.
In 1998, he was deported to Mexico pursuant to a deportation order from a federal immigration judge after waiving his right to appeal. At some point, the ex-convict illegally snuck back into the United States again.
If you’re keeping count, this means that by this point, Palomar-Santiago had twice broken federal immigration laws.
This was on top of committing another crime by driving under the influence. DUI is a crime in all 50 states.
In 2017 — when Donald Trump was president — Palomar-Santiago was indicted for violating U.S. immigration laws by illegally re-entering the country.
At the time, the Mexican national challenged the indictment, citing the 2004 case Leocal v. Ashcroft, in which the Supreme Court ruled that a DUI was not sufficient grounds to deport an illegal alien.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — a longtime bastion of left-wing activist judges — affirmed a lower court’s decision allowing the dismissal of Palomar-Santiago’s indictment for illegal re-entry.
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On Monday, the case came full circle when Sotomayor wrote the unanimous opinion for the Supreme Court asserting that the “Ninth Circuit’s interpretation is incompatible” with federal law.
Specifically, the Supreme Court said Palomar-Santiago failed to satisfy all three procedural requirements necessary to block his deportation.
The federal statute states that: “In a criminal proceeding under this section, an alien may not challenge the validity of the deportation order … unless the alien demonstrates that — the alien exhausted any administrative remedies that may have been available to seek relief against the order; the deportation proceedings at which the order was issued improperly deprived the alien of the opportunity for judicial review; and the entry of the order was fundamentally unfair.”
This farcical case illustrates how deftly illegal aliens have exploited the U.S. legal system to repeatedly violate longstanding federal laws that are designed to ensure public safety and national security.
Instead of advocating for Americans, the left is wasting their tax dollars to advocate on behalf of foreign nationals who shouldn’t even be in the country in the first place.
It took years for a convicted criminal illegal alien to be deported from the country after breaking immigration laws at least twice.
President Biden’s reckless immigration policies have fueled a crisis at our southern border. Then @RepHaleyStevens responded by voting for two immigration amnesty bills that will make it worse. Congress needs to stop rewarding illegal immigration. pic.twitter.com/7wt9gvi65C
— FAIR (@FAIRImmigration) May 25, 2021
After sneaking into the U.S. decades ago, Palomar-Santiago was convicted of DUI in California 33 years ago, in 1988. It then took another 10 years before the illegal alien was deported for the DUI.
At some point between 1998 and 2017, he illegally re-entered the country before being ordered to leave once again.
For the past four years, he has wasted taxpayer money and resources by challenging the right of U.S. courts to enforce U.S. laws. In no other country would this insane abuse of the legal system be tolerated.
However, in the United States, Democrats not only condone foreign nationals breaking American laws but they encourage it with their open-borders rhetoric and policies.
The irony is, the leftists who screech nonstop that the United States is “systemically racist” and unfair are the same ones who encourage illegal aliens to barrage the nation.
If the U.S. is such an evil bastion of “white supremacy” — as the left repeatedly claims — why do Democrats want scores of brown and black people to come here? Wouldn’t those people be better off in a country that’s not so horribly unfair to them?
Better yet, why do countless people of color risk their lives to sneak into a country that their supporters insist is racist and unjust?
The answer is simple: The left has cavalierly weaponized the race card to silence its critics and seize power by any means necessary, even if it means brainwashing the public with left-wing propaganda and lies.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
