Supreme Court Rules 5-4 That States Can Charge Illegal Immigrants For I.D. Theft
The Supreme Court has been giving President Donald Trump recent wins. And in a close decision, they have handed him another one.
https://conservativebrief.com/supreme-court-rules-5-4-that-states-can-charge-illegal-immigrants-for-i-d-theft-22214/?utm_source=CB&utm_medium=BFT
The nation’s highest court recently took on a case involving undocumented workers and ruled that illegal aliens who steal Americans’ Social Security numbers can be charged with a crime.
The SCOTUS issued a major 5-4 decision that illegal immigrants who use someone else’s information when filling out tax forms for employment can face criminal charges.
All four liberal justices — Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan — did not believe that illegals who commit these crimes should face criminal charges.
“The Immigration Control and Reform Act (IRCA) makes it a federal crime to lie on the I-9 work authorization form while limiting how false information can be used. Federal law also says information “contained in” the I-9 cannot be used for law enforcement other than specified exceptions — but the Supreme Court ruled that if workers use the same information in tax documents, they can face charges,” Fox News reported.
“Although IRCA expressly regulates the use of I–9’s and documents appended to that form, no provision of IRCA directly addresses the use of other documents, such as federal and state tax withholding forms, that an employee may complete upon beginning a new job,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the court’s opinion, which was joined by fellow conservatives Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh.
The IRCA also prohibits state or local charges or civil cases against “those who employ, or recruit or refer for a fee for employment, unauthorized aliens,” but Alito noted that this “makes no mention of state or local laws that impose criminal or civil sanctions on employees or applicants for employment.”
Fox News provides more information on this particular case:
In the case of Kansas v. Garcia, three immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally used someone else’s Social Security number on their I-9 forms, as well as on tax-withholding forms. They argued that state prosecutors improperly used information from their I-9 forms.
The state dropped charges that relied on those forms and agreed not to use them during their trials while claiming that the law does not prevent them from using their use of false Social Security numbers on tax documents.
All three were convicted, and all three convictions were upheld by the Kansas Court of Appeals before the Kansas Supreme Court reversed the decisions. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled that charges were improper because “[t]he fact that this information was included in the W–4 and K–4 did not alter the fact that it was also part of the I–9.”
The Supreme Court has handed down a slew of 5-4 rulings this month.
The Court ruled 5-4 in favor of tossing a lawsuit filed against a Texas border agent for shooting and killing a Mexican teenager.
In the other immigration case, the Court ruled 5-4 in favor of allowing the Trump administration to enforce its “public charge” immigration rule, which allows them to deny green cards to immigrants who would be dependent on government welfare for extended periods.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court announced it will postpone oral arguments scheduled to begin on March 23rd amid fears of the coronavirus.