The Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a major victory in an immigration case as it said the administration is right to take away green cards from people accused of certain criminal activities when they return to the US. The 6-3 decision came in connection with a 2012 decision by an immigration official to place green card holder Muk Choi Lau on immigration parole after he returned from a short trip abroad because he was charged with a counterfeiting offense.Lau argued that the officer overstepped the bounds of authority and that the decision allowed the Department of Homeland Security to wrongly initiate deportation proceedings after he pleaded guilty to trademark counterfeiting.
What is Lau’s case?
Lau is a Chinese citizen who became a lawful permanent resident in 2007. Five years later, in May 2012, he was arrested and charged in New Jersey with selling approximately $300,000 worth of counterfeit goods. After this he left America for some time and returned in June. Immigration officials determined that Lau’s pending charges made him inadmissible.He was allowed to remain in the US only temporarily “to face prosecution for a counterfeit crime”. He pleaded guilty to trademark counterfeiting in 2013, and immigration judges determined he could be removed for his conviction.But a federal appeals court later determined that immigration officials needed “clear and convincing evidence” that Lau had actually committed an inadmissible offense – not merely an allegation before sentencing – before deciding he was inadmissible.Today, this decision was overturned by the Supreme Court and although this case predates the Trump administration, it gives border officials the authority to deny a green card holder his or her permanent residence in such cases.Justice Clarence Thomas’s decision leaves green card holders vulnerable to detention and removal, even if they are accused of a crime and the charges are not proven. The ruling states that border officials do not require “clear and convincing evidence” that a lawful permanent resident in the US has committed a serious crime before changing their status.Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, saying this would give the government a blanket blank check to rewrite immigration law.