WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday limited the path to U.S. permanent residency for foreign citizens with temporary immigration protections, closing a window that allowed some immigrants to get green cards in recent years.
In a unanimous decision, the justices found a grant of Temporary Protected Status, which provides work permits and deportation relief to immigrants from certain countries in crisis, does not constitute a legal admission to the country — a requirement for some to become permanent residents.
Individuals who cross the border illegally but are granted protections for victims of crimes, for example, are allowed to later become permanent residents. However, the same is not true for recipients of TPS, the high court held.
“Lawful status and admission, as the court below recognized, are distinct concepts in immigration law: Establishing one does not necessarily establish the other,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the high court.
“And because a grant of TPS does not come with a ticket of admission, it does not eliminate the disqualifying effect of an unlawful entry,” she continued.
The ruling bars Jose Santos Sanchez and his wife, New Jersey residents and TPS holders, from becoming permanent residents through his employer, a yacht company that sponsored him for an employment-based green card more than a decade ago.
It will also make it more difficult for thousands of TPS holders who initially entered the U.S. without authorization, and thus were not originally “admitted,” to become permanent residents, even after living in the U.S. under the temporary status for years or even decades.
Jaime Winthuysen Aparisi, one of Santos Sanchez’ lawyers, said in an email Monday he was “highly disappointed the Court decided against the rights of immigrants who otherwise played by the rules like Mr. and Mrs. Sanchez.”
“TPS recipients like them have been living and working lawfully here for twenty years,” he added.
The case puts an end to a split among circuit courts that allowed immigrants living in some states to get green cards in the last few years, while those with identical circumstances in other states could not.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in the 6th, 8th and 9th Circuits had held a grant of TPS counts as a legal admission to the country, allowing immigrants with temporary status to become permanent residents when sponsored by family members or employers without having to leave the country.
This gave TPS holders in those states with employers willing to sponsor them a path to a green card. It also relieved TPS holders with American spouses from having to travel abroad and re-enter the country to become permanent residents, a difficult process that can be prohibitively expensive and require individuals to wait in countries deemed unsafe by the U.S. government.
However, two other appellate courts, the 3rd and 11th circuits, held otherwise. The high court’s Monday ruling upholds the 3rd Circuit’s reasoning and establishes that law nationwide.
By narrowing a path to permanent status for a subset of TPS holders, the ruling could put more pressure on Congress to pass farther reaching protections.
The House passed legislation in March that would allow people with TPS and other immigration protections, including certain undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, to become green card holders. However, the bill has yet to gain traction in the more closely divided Senate.
In Monday’s opinion, Kagan noted this legislation would revise the immigration statute to specifically deem TPS holders to have been admitted.
Winthuysen Aparisi said anyone who believes the high court’s ruling was an “unjust result” “should reach out to their congressperson or senator” and urge them to support that bill.
“Congress needs to act,” Nicholas Katz, the legal director of advocacy organization Casa de Maryland, said in an interview ahead of the high court’s ruling. “I don’t know how much more pressure this Supreme Court case is going to put on them, but the pressure’s coming from us.”
Responding to the high court’s ruling in statement on Twitter, the National TPS Alliance called on Congress to act.
“Although this is a huge blow for one of the only available avenues for TPS holders to adjust their status, this will not deter our struggle for obtaining green cards for all TPS holders. Congress must act now!!!” the organization wrote.
A representative for the Justice Department didn’t immediately return a request for comment Monday.
