Everyone Should Agree: Aliens Who Commit Crimes Shouldn’t Be in This Country

A recent Supreme Court decision stopping a deportation was correct, but Congress can easily fix the law.

The Trump administration’s efforts to get convicted criminal aliens off of our streets and out of the country was dealt a setback this week, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A majority in Sessions v. Dimaya held that a part of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) used to deport criminal aliens was unconstitutionally “vague.” Fortunately, this is a problem Congress could easily remedy with a very simple legislative fix. Only those opposed to safeguarding the public from convicted felons could possibly oppose it.

James Dimaya

At issue was a provision of the INA that defines what a “crime of violence” is for purposes of removal proceedings. Under federal law, if an alien is convicted of an “aggravated felony,” he is subject to deportation even if he is in the country legally. The INA has a long list of specific offenses that fit the “aggravated felony” definition, one of which is a “crime of violence” punishable by at least a year in prison.

The man at the center of this case, James Dimaya, is a lawful permanent resident alien from the Philippines. The U.S. moved to deport him after his second felony conviction for first-degree burglary under California law. An immigration court ordered Dimaya’s deportation because it found that first-degree burglary met the “crime of violence” definition.

Why? Because a “crime of violence” is further defined in federal law as any felony that poses “a substantial risk that physical force against the person or property of another may be used in the course of committing the offense.”

The immigration court believed that such a risk is present in a first-degree burglary when a criminal is breaking into an occupied residence. However, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the law was unconstitutionally vague. --->

Read the rest from Hans A. von Spakovsky HERE.

If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here. Please follow us on Twitter here.