A divided Supreme Court has ruled that federal courts do not hold power to review immigration officials' decisions in some deportation cases - even if the officials have made "egregious factual mistakes."
"The court ruled 5-4 against Georgia resident Pankajkumar Patel, who checked a box indicating he was a U.S. citizen when renewing his Georgia driver's license in 2008," reports Yahoo News.
An immigration judge under the Department of Justice later concluded that Patel had intentionally tried to misrepresent his status to obtain the ID - despite the state of Georgia offering special state licenses to illegal aliens.
Patel later admitted to entering the country illegally with his wife close to three decades ago. In 2007, Patel applied for a green card through his employer. However, due to the immigration judge's ruling, Patel and his wife were ordered deported.
Yahoo News adds:
Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for five justices that federal courts can't review such decisions under immigration law. The U.S. attorney general can grant protection from deportation, but people must first be eligible and the result of the immigration judge's decision was that Patel was ineligible.
Justice Neil Gorsuch joined with the court's more liberal justices in dissent. "As a result, no court may correct even the agency's most egregious factual mistakes about an individual's statutory eligibility for relief," Gorsuch wrote, noting the agency itself sided with Patel at the Supreme Court.
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