US Supreme Court starts rehearing Filipino’s deportation case
US Supreme Court, Washington, DC. WIKIPEDIA
SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. Supreme Court began rehearing an immigration case involving a Filipino immigrant Monday, October 2, with new Justice Neil M. Gorsuch playing an active role in oral arguments.
The high court was deadlocked last year on the case of James Garcia Dimaya, a permanent U.S. resident who pleaded no contest to residential burglary charges about ten years ago.
Homeland Security contends the burglary amounted to a crime of violence, which would make Dimaya, a Philippine national, subject to deportation.
James Garcia Dimana is facing deportation. INQUIRER FILE
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that the definition of a “crime of violence” was too vague and, thus, unconstitutional.
Gorsuch said lawmakers, not the court, should decide the law’s language.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg questioned whether the crime was one of moral turpitude and how that factors into the court’s analysis.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked if burglary is a crime that presents a risk of physical violence by which an individual can be deported, saying burglars rarely enter a home with people in it that can be subjected to violence.
Dimaya had pleaded no contest to burglary of an unoccupied residence.
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