High Court Ruling on Migrant Deportations Could Provide New Hope
The decision could be a windfall for scores of immigrants battling deportation, but could also overwhelm an already flooded court system.
Landwebs
The recent Supreme Court ruling in the case of Niz-Chavez vs. Garland, which found that the federal government must provide all required information to immigrants facing deportation in a single notice, could potentially benefit scores of immigrants hoping to get their deportation cancelled because they didn’t receive proper notice of the court proceedings, reports the Associated Press. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for years has been notifying immigrants about their deportation cases in roughly two parts: an initial notice to appear in court and follow up notices providing the date, time and location of the proceedings.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, in his majority opinion, criticized the piecemeal approach as exceeding federal law. Immigration activists argue ICE’s current notice process causes too many immigrants to miss their court hearings, as months can pass between the initial and follow-up notices. Some, they say, don’t even find out until years later that they had a deportation hearing and were ordered removed from the country by a judge. Immigration experts say the decision sure to add more cases to an already overburdened immigration court system, but also gives new life to cases in which immigrants weren’t properly notified, never showed up for their deportation cases, were ultimately ordered to leave the country, and benefits anyone issued a deportation notice without the necessary specifics going forward.
