A Chinese green card holder challenged a border official’s decision to place him on immigration parole because he was charged with counterfeiting.
By Catholics for Catholics
Immigration authorities were legally validated in declining to lawfully admit into the country a Chinese citizen with a U.S. green card who had been charged with counterfeiting, ruled the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday.
The legal matter in Blanche v. Lau is whether the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) properly classified the man as barred because of a pending criminal charge. Muk Choi Lau was a lawful permanent resident of the United States since September 2007. After a trip to his native China in June 2012, he returned to the country.
In May, 2012, Lau had been charged with violating New Jersey law by engaging in third-degree trademark counterfeiting. On June 23 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6–3 that immigration authorities were legally justified in refusing to formally admit into the country a Chinese citizen with a U.S. green card who had been charged with counterfeiting.
When he returned to the United States, Lau presented himself as a lawful permanent resident, but U.S. immigration authorities noted the pending charge and refused to admit him to the country. Instead, they granted him parole with deferred inspection, meaning he was permitted into the country subject to a later decision on his immigration status.
In June 2013, Lau was convicted of counterfeiting and sentenced to two years of probation. In March 2014, DHS decided to deport him, saying that he had been ineligible for admission in June 2012 because when he reentered the country, he had committed “a crime involving moral turpitude.”
The U.S. Department of Justice argued that an offense involving moral turpitude is a serious crime sufficient to warrant deportation.
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