Bloomberg Law: Deported Green Card Holders in Tough Spot at High Court

O’Melveny partner Brad Garcia defended client Refugio Palomar-Santiago, a Mexican citizen accused of unlawful reentry into the United States, before the US Supreme Court, Bloomberg Law reported.

At issue in the case is whether the defendant can be convicted of illegal reentry when his original deportation was invalidated by SCOTUS in a separate case six years later. The publication noted that “federal immigration law requires non-citizens challenging the validity of a removal order to show three things: that they exhausted administrative remedies, there was no opportunity to appeal, and the action was ‘fundamentally unfair.’”

Prosecutors argued that Palomar-Santiago never pursued the first two avenues. Garcia countered, stating that “[a]dministrative remedies were not available because no ordinary non-citizen could understand and formulate the complex legal arguments required to challenge BIA precedent under the categorical approach.”

Bloomberg Law subscribers can read the full article here.