A Law Without Discretion

The Supreme Court has agreed to take up the issue of whether legal immigrants who have committed a crime in the United States can be deported without legal recourse. A 1996 immigration bill passed by a GOP-controlled Congress gave officials at the Immigration and Naturalization Service the right to order immediate deportation without judicial review.

Consider the case of a Dominican native who has lived in the U.S. since she was 3 years old and is the mother of four U.S.-born children. Five years ago she pleaded guilty to selling an illegal drug and was ordered deported without recourse by the INS. A federal appeals court in New York has ruled that she should have access to a federal trial judge to argue the unfairness of the automatic deportation order against her. It is this issue that the Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear. A fair ruling would give Deb Calcano-Martinez and others like her an opportunity to contest the painful consequences of this overly strict law.

Tenacious immigrant rights lawyers, like those representing Calcano-Martinez, have had some success in fighting the deportation law. Courts that have concurred in their arguments include the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California.

Most immigrants who find themselves in this situation cannot afford a skilled defense. Thousands, some convicted of simple crimes long ago, have been deported without a hearing to native countries that they may barely remember.

This is a law without discretion and it should be revised.