Filipino at center of US Supreme Court hearing on what crimes trigger deportation

Permanent resident James Dimaya of Haywar, California, was convicted of burglaries and set for deportation. The US Supreme Court is hearing his case. TWITTER

SAN FRANCISCO — The US Supreme Court is hearing arguments involving a Filipino immigrant in a case that raises the question of whether crimes such as home burglary can be considered “crimes of violence,” which under federal law calls for the mandatory deportation of the convicted perpetrator.

James Garcia Dimaya, a longtime permanent resident, served more than five years in prison for burgling empty homes California law and. U.S. immigration officials said those crimes were enough to trigger his deportation under the law. But courts have been confused by the issue.

The Philippine-born Dimaya came to the United States in 1992, when he was 13 years old. He went to high school, became a lawful permanent resident and settled in Hayward, California. He was convicted and sent to state prison for burglaries in 2007 and in 2009.

Immigration judges ruled that Dimaya should be deported because his burglary convictions were “crimes of violence” that qualified as “aggravated felonies.”

But lower courts including the court of appeals disagreed because the law was vague. The question arose whether crimes such as home burglary, fleeing from the police, money laundering or child abuse can be considered “crimes of violence” that trigger mandatory deportation.

In their recent hearing, Supreme Court justices questioned whether Dimaya’s crimes were properly classified as “aggravated felonies.”

Congress in 1988 ordered deportation for noncitizens who are convicted of an “aggravated felony,” which was defined to include offenses that involve a use of physical force or a “substantial risk” that force would be used.

But in a two-year-old opinion, the late Justice Antonin Scalia and an 8-to-1 majority had stated that the law was unconstitutionally vague because they could not decide whether gun possession is itself evidence of a violent crime.

“You could say the exact same thing about burglary,” Justice Elena Kagan said at the recent hearing. A midday burglary of a home could result in violence, she said, but perhaps not if it were an empty garage or an abandoned house. “So it seems like we’re replicating the same kind of confusion,” she said.

A decision on Dimaya’s case could determine how freely the incoming Donald Trump administration could deport immigrants convicted of crimes as it has promised.