Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Supreme Court debates deportation cases

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published October 4, 2006

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court justices wrestled Tuesday with the question of whether convictions for minor crimes should force immigrants' deportation, the first case in a term expected to make clearer the court's direction under Chief Justice John Roberts.

Thousands of immigrants who have run afoul of the law, some for possessing small amounts of drugs, could be affected by the outcome of Tuesday's arguments.

Justices took part in questioning lawyers from both sides as the Bush administration argued that immigrants convicted of state drug felonies are deportable even if the same crimes are considered only misdemeanors under federal law.

Jose Antonio Lopez of Sioux Falls, S.D., was ordered deported after he pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting possession of cocaine. The crime is a felony under South Dakota state law, but a misdemeanor under the federal Controlled Substances Act if it is a first offense, as it was in Lopez's case.

Several justices said they were troubled that immigration authorities would treat differently two people who commit the same crime in different states that hand out different penalties.

Lopez, a 16-year U.S. resident, already has been deported to Mexico, but could return to his wife and two children, who are U.S. citizens, if the court rules in his favor.

Even then, Lopez still could face deportation, but an immigration judge would have discretion to allow him to remain.

Justices were more skeptical of the claims of another immigrant, who had been in the United States illegally and whose case was considered along with Lopez's.

Reymundo Toledo-Flores, a Mexican national, is objecting to having his latest conviction for illegally entering the United States classified an aggravated felony.

Since he is contesting his prison term, rather than his deportation, justices wondered why they should even be dealing with Toledo-Flores' case now that he has served his sentence and has been returned to Mexico.

Toledo-Flores remains on supervised release, a kind of probation, said his lawyer, Timothy Crooks of Houston. Refraining from alcohol is one of the conditions of his release, Crooks said.

That claim drew the ire of Roberts and Justice Antonin Scalia. "There is no supervised release of people outside the United States," Roberts said.

[Last modified October 4, 2006, 01:07:27]