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Immigration Lawyers Say the Biden Administration’s Supreme Court Win Was a Terrible Mistake

A recent order gave the government impunity to reject visa applications without an explanation or appeal. One attorney called it “an extraordinary measure of power and also an extraordinary lack of transparency.”

State Department AP-18012296299827
Alastair Grant/AP

The Biden administration cemented an important executive power using a recent Supreme Court case. Immigration lawyers say it was a huge mistake.

Eric Lee, an immigration lawyer, has spent years working on behalf of Sandra Muñoz, a U.S. citizen, and her husband, Luis Asencio-Cordero, a citizen of El Salvador. The couple has been separated since 2015 after his application for a visa was rejected because he had tattoos that consular staff identified as gang-related.

Lee, Muñoz and Asencio-Cordero have vehemently denied the allegations that he was ever part of a gang and that the tattoos are gang-related. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling came down in favor of the couple, but then the solicitor general filed to have the case brought to the Supreme Court.