The immigrant who entered the country illegally can’t get a green card because of the TPS program: US Supreme Court

New Delhi: The US Supreme Court on Monday refused to grant permanent residency to immigrants, who entered the US illegally. The Apex Court of the US refused to let immigrants who have been permitted to stay in the US on humanitarian grounds applied to become permanent residents if they entered the country illegally.

The judges, acting in an appeal by a married couple from El Salvador who was granted so-called Temporary Protected Status, unanimously upheld a lower court ruling that barred their applications for permanent residency, also known as ‘green card’, because of their unlawful entry.

The case could affect thousands of immigrants, many of whom have lived in the US for years. About 400,000 people, most of them from El Salvador, live in the U.S. with Temporary Protected Status, which permits them to remain as long as the government determines they cannot safely return. At issue in the case was whether those immigrants could apply for lawful permanent residency, or green cards if they entered the United States illegally.

A federal law called the Immigration and Nationality Act generally requires that people seeking to become permanent residents have been “inspected and admitted” into the US. At issue in the case was whether a grant of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which gives the recipient “lawful status”, satisfies those requirements.

Justice Elena Kagan said “because a grant of TPS does not come with a ticket of admission, it does not eliminate the disqualifying effect of an unlawful entry”