Nearly all underage immigrants waiting for visas to stay in the United States will have to start the process all over again when they turn 21, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday.
The 5-4 vote created an unusual bloc of justices with at least five different interpretations of the federal law at issue.
The case deals with whether those seeking permanent status under a family preference provision, but then "age out" because of the often lengthy visa approval process, have a right to appeal the agency's order reassigning them to the adults-only category.
The majority agreed with the Obama administration, concluding the Board of Immigration Appeals made a "reasonable" interpretation of what the court called "ambiguous language" in the immigration application rules.
In the face of such ambiguity, courts typically defer to the agency's interpretation, as the justices did in this instance.
The Supreme Court appeal came from a Salvadoran immigrant, Rosalina Cuellar de Osorio, who applied for visas on behalf of her and her 13-year-old son. The lengthy process stretched past the young man's 21st birthday, at which time he lost his "automatic conversion and priority date retention."Read the rest of the story HERE.
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