Divided Supreme Court finds some deadline flexibility for immigrants who agree to leave U.S.

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST WASHINGTON AP A divided Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that immigrants who agree to leave the country are allowed particular deadline flexibility in a incident that was argued before President Donald Trump s immigration crackdown Related Articles Federal court rulings have slowed down Trump deportation plans What you need to know Mahmoud Khalil s wife gives birth after ICE denies Columbia activist s plea for temporary release Chosen GOP states are targeting driver s licenses issued to immigrants illegally in the US Salvadoran President Bukele proposes prisoner swap with Maduro for Venezuelan deportees Other voices Judge Boasberg is right to seek contempt against Trump authorities In a - decision the court sided with a man who came from Mexico illegally as a teenager and had lived in Colorado for nearly two decades before he was ordered to leave in The episode was argued in November days after Trump won re-election Several other new immigration cases have since come before the court on its exigency docket In the episode of Hugo Abisai Monsalvo Vel zquez the Supreme Court majority located that a Saturday deadline to voluntarily leave should have been extended to the following Monday Here as elsewhere the term days operates to extend a deadline that falls on a weekend or legal holiday to the next business day conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the opinion which was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts as well as the court s three liberal justices The other four conservatives disagreed finding that the justices should have sent the occurrence back to a lower court to decide whether federal courts have jurisdiction over this kind of dispute Justice Samuel Alito also wrote in a dissent joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh that the majority s opinion amounts to an unwarranted two-day extension The Court is sympathetic to petitioner s plight but the relevant statutory provision sets a deadline and no matter how such a deadline is calculated there will inevitably be those who happen to miss it by a day or so Alito wrote Monsalvo Vel zquez was born in Mexico and came to the U S in according to court papers He settled in the Denver area where he played high school varsity soccer attended group college and worked for local businesses He got married and the couple bought a house and had two children He had in recent weeks opened his own auto-detailing system shortly before he was ordered to leave the country in He was allowed to self deport and an immigration judge set a -day deadline to leave that fell on a Saturday Monsalvo Vel zquez filed a motion to reopen the proceedings late the Friday before the deadline that was docketed the following Monday It was rejected by the Board of Immigration Appeals and a federal appeals court Immigrants who do not leave within the required period face removal fines and ineligibility for the bulk forms of immigration relief for years