问题 & 趋势
WLC小组探讨威尔金森诉. 搬迁案件中的花环
2024年4月12日
她刚刚在美国公开赛上获胜.S. Supreme Court, Goodwin Procter LLP partner Jaime Santos talked about the impact of 威尔金森v. 加兰 on cancellation of removal applications at a March 27 panel hosted by the 华盛顿靠谱的滚球平台s’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs (WLC).
在这种情况下, the justices held that federal courts have the ability to review the denial of an immigrant’s application for cancellation of removal based on the hardship that deportation would cause the applicant’s U.S.裔的孩子. It was Santos’s first oral argument before the nation’s highest court.
“Cancellation is one of the many forms of discretionary immigration relief that is available to noncitizens the government is trying to deport,桑托斯说。, cochair of Goodwin’s appellate and Supreme Court litigation practice and a WLC board member. 如果非美国公民能够满足四项资格要求，该法案就适用. 他们必须在美国生活了10年. 他们必须有良好的道德品质. 他们必须没有取消资格的刑事定罪, and they have to show that their removal would cause ‘exceptional and extremely unusual hardship’ to a U.S. 家庭成员.”
桑托斯的客户, 司徒卡姆·威尔金森, 特立尼达和多巴哥的公民, 21年前来到美国, 逃离警察的迫害. 此后，他与一名美国女性结婚.S. 有一个孩子，也是美国公民.S. 出生为公民. 威尔金森 worked as a handyman and was the sole financial support for his family.
“He is known in his community as the guy who helps senior citizens take their groceries into their homes and fixes things that are broken,桑托斯说。.
In 2019 police found drugs in a house where 威尔金森 was making repairs. 他被联邦移民官员逮捕并拘留. 当美国.S. government commenced removal proceedings 再一次。st him in 2020 for overstaying his tourist visa (the criminal charges were withdrawn), 威尔金森 sought relief in the form of asylum and cancellation of removal.
While 威尔金森 met the first three statutory criteria for eligibility, the government disagreed that his deportation would cause exceptional and extremely unusual hardship for his son who has serious medical issues. The immigration judge found that 威尔金森’s hardship did not meet the requisite level of severity to qualify for relief, 和美国.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that it had no jurisdiction to review the judge’s determination because it was discretionary.
桑托斯不同意, saying that while the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) strips federal courts of the ability to review discretionary forms of relief, 他们可以审查宪法要求和法律问题.
“大约四年前，最高法院举行了…… Guerrero-Lasprilla v. 巴尔 that ‘questions of law’ that courts have jurisdiction to review include the application of a legal standard to settled or established facts,桑托斯说。.
She argued that the determination in 威尔金森’s case involved just such a mixed question of fact and law and was therefore reviewable by a federal court. 政府, 另一方面, 认为这个问题主要是, 如果不是全部, factual and that it involved a discretionary decision by an immigration judge that could not be reviewed.
“The Court issued a 6–3 decision holding that it meant what it said in Guerrero-Lasprilla ——这些都是复杂的问题, 无论是判决的还是法定的, 不管是否有事实依据, were questions of law under the INA and that they are reviewable by federal courts,桑托斯说。.
After being detained for almost four years in the course of litigation, 威尔金森 was released in February and has since reunited with his wife and child.
马特·亚当斯, 西北移民权利项目的法律主管, 描述了其重要性 威尔金森 他说:“这对奥巴马先生来说是一个惊人的结果. 威尔金森, 而且对整个移民社区也是如此, given the impact this will have … in making clear that individuals who are denied cancellation of removal based upon a hardship finding have access to judicial review.”
“许多, 这可能看起来有点抽象, but for those practitioners who are representing people in deportation proceedings, we are well aware of the fact that cancellation of removal for nonpermanent residents is one of the primary forms of relief for people who don’t have legal status in this country,亚当斯补充道.
Adams said that the broad discretionary powers held by immigration courts have made representation a frustrating and sometimes futile effort. He pointed out that the courts’ discretionary powers largely originate under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, and since then there have been few court decisions that discuss the standard of unusual hardship.
“不幸的是, the way that plays out is that immigration judges have so much room to decide whether they are going to grant discretionary relief based on this hardship finding, so you have people who are regularly denied that are facing unconscionable hardship,他说. “现在, 有了这个决定, 辩护人可以提交复审申请, and we’re going to be able to start to flesh out the case law here that lays out more concrete guidelines for what constitutes exceptional and extremely unusual hardship.”
威尔金森 也会对其他问题产生影响，亚当斯说. 这是必然的, 从法院的判决中, that with respect to cancellation of removal for victims of violence under the Violence Against Women Act, 这也有困难的因素, 法院对…拥有管辖权, 再一次。, 运用无可争议的事实，看看他们是否遇到了这种困难.”
根据亚当斯的说法， 威尔金森 may yet extend to other discretionary decisions by immigration courts, 当无可争议的事实适用于法律标准.
