{"id":723,"date":"2026-06-24T10:07:03","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T10:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=723"},"modified":"2026-06-24T10:07:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T10:07:03","slug":"scotus-gave-the-government-a-blank-check-to-weaken-due-process-for-green-card-holders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=723","title":{"rendered":"SCOTUS Gave the Government a \u201cBlank Check\u201d to Weaken Due Process for Green Card Holders"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"A<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

This Supreme Court<\/span> term has no shortage of high-profile immigration-related cases. But as the justices wait until the last minute to rule on the more controversial ones\u2014namely birthright citizenship\u2014on Tuesday, they delivered a decision in a sleeper case that could have implications for millions of green card holders living in the United States.<\/p>

Read more The Supreme Court Deals Major Blow to Congressional Authority<\/a><\/p>\n

In a 6-3 signed by Justice Clarence Thomas, the conservative supermajority held that border officers don\u2019t need to have \u201cclear and convincing evidence\u201d that a lawful permanent resident committed a \u2014a vaguely defined immigration law term that can cover a wide spectrum of crimes generally involving intent to defraud or cause bodily harm\u2014<\/strong>before jeopardizing their rights and ability to stay in the country. In other words, agents at the border have just been given exceptional discretion to bypass protections generally afforded to green card holders.<\/p>\n

Inthe case at issue, Blanche v. Lau<\/em>, Muk Choi Lau, a Chinese-born green card holder was charged in New Jersey in 2012 with trademark counterfeiting. Lau then traveled abroad and tried to re-enter the United States at the airport with his green card. Under federal statute, returning lawful permanent residents are supposed to be treated as having already been admitted into the country\u2014meaning they are essentially just coming back home. \u00a0<\/p>\n

But a border agent determined that, because of Lau\u2019s pending criminal charges for a crime involving moral turpitude, he fit into an exception and could be classified as someone \u201cseeking admission\u201d (rather than already admitted) into the United States. Lau was paroled in, but had his green card confiscated. After he pleaded guilty to the charges, the federal government started removal proceedings against him.<\/p>\n

An immigration judge found that Lau could be removed,<\/strong> but following an appeal, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed. The appeals court concluded that the border office didn\u2019t have enough evidence at that time to show that Lau had committed a crime and that he should have been treated under the default presumption that he had already been admitted into the United States due to his lawful permanent status.<\/p>\n

\u201cCritically,\u201d Judge Richard J. Sullivan and the appeals panel ruled last year, \u201cthe INA [Immigration and Nationality Act] does not provide that an LPR (Lawful Permanent Resident] may be treated as seeking admission when he has been \u2018charged with a crime\u2019 or is \u2018believed to have committed a crime; it permits such a treatment only when an LPR \u2018has committed\u2019 a crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Tuesday\u2019s decision, the Supreme Court majority led by Justice Thomas vacated the Second Circuit\u2019s judgment, arguing that the government had correctly reclassified Lau and that the federal statute didn\u2019t actually require the border officer to \u201chave clear and convincing evidence that Lau had committed a crime involving moral turpitude before deeming him an applicant for admission.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ruling<\/span> in Blanche v. Lau <\/em>is likely to create a chilling effect on lawful permanent residents traveling overseas. Notably, it follows proposed <\/span>rules by the Trump administration to force immigrants to pursue green card applications from abroad<\/span>, and make it considerably more expensive for green card holders to apply for US citizenship.<\/span><\/p>

Read more Prairieland ICE Protesters Sentenced to Decades in Prison<\/a><\/p>\n

In her dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said the Court\u2019s decision undermined the \u201cbenefits and security that come with having a green card.\u201d In the worst-case scenario, Justice Jackson reasoned, the government could \u201cmerely assume\u201d at the border that a green card holder should be demoted to \u201cseeking admission\u201d and only justify that determination with \u201cpost hoc<\/em> evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI worry that the Court has now handed the Government a massive blank check,\u201d Justice Jackson wrote. Green card holders, she added, \u201care as close to citizenship as one can get absent naturalization\u2026Today, the majority ignores that crucial fact and empowers Government officials to act accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick\u00a0with the American immigration Council noted on social media that the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling does not mean that green card holders can simply be ordered deported by border agents. But classifying lawful permanent residents returning from abroad as \u201cseeking admission\u201d could open up a wide range of negative legal and practical consequences for them, including the possibility of detention and, eventually, deportation proceedings requiring a higher burden of proof for defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very disturbing in the breadth of its reach, and I think we can expect border officers to overuse the power that they\u2019re given here,\u201d said Nancy Morawetz, a law professor and director of the Crimmigration Clinic at NYU. She worries about the implications for green card holders who could be subject to other grounds of inadmissibility, such as offenses involving controlled substances. \u201cThere are a lot of people who could be at real risk if the government doesn\u2019t really have to have any proof\u2026It\u2019s very, very dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen Orr, former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the ruling lowers the due process standards green card holders are entitled to. \u201cWe\u2019re giving a border officer the ability to determine if it\u2019s a crime of moral turpitude and you might not even be guilty of it,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the facts are clear and the person is excludable and does not deserve to be in the United States, then take their green card but afford them a process greater than some border officer at the port of entry.\u201d<\/p>\n

He warned on Bluesky: \u201cThe danger of this ruling is that it creates an incentive to use the border as a place where rights are diminished.\u201d Orr said it further sends a troubling message to lawful permanent residents. \u201cI already have clients who have green cards who are just afraid to travel,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause the government has said, as a green card holder, you\u2019re just now a long-term visitor, we could deny you for anything.\u201d The decision, he concluded, \u201caligns with the goal of excluding and removing people from the United States that are not US-born nationals.\u201d<\/p>

Read more \u201cWater-Gate\u201d: FIFA\u2019s Solution to World Cup Heat Is Seen as a Cash Grab<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe danger of this ruling is that it creates an incentive to use the border as a place where rights are diminished.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nSCOTUS Gave the Government a \u201cBlank Check\u201d to Weaken Due Process for Green Card Holders - Moving and Mortgage Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=723\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SCOTUS Gave the Government a \u201cBlank Check\u201d to Weaken Due Process for Green Card Holders - 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