Supreme Court hears case in which a Los Angeles man was denied his visa because of his tattoos

(Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times)

Supreme Court hears case in which a Los Angeles man was denied his visa because of his tattoos

Immigration and the border

Andrea Castillo

January 12, 2024

The Supreme Court will hear the case of a Los Angeles man who was denied a visa in part because of his tattoos.

Luis Acensio Cordero ha

S

separated from his wife Sandra Muoz for nine years after being denied a visa to return to the US. The couple filed a lawsuit, arguing that the federal government violated Muoz’s constitutional rights to marriage and due process by denying her husband’s visa without providing a timely explanation.

They won a victory in California’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals

in 2022

. The Biden administration then appealed to the Supreme Court.

On Friday,

the court announced

it will hear the case, but limit its investigation to the first two of the three questions posed by the federal government in its appeal. Those questions are: “whether a consular officer’s denial of a visa to the spouse of a non-citizen of the United States impinges on a constitutionally protected interest of the citizen,” and “whether, assuming such constitutional interest exists , a visa applicant is informed that he or she is deemed inadmissible. …sufficient to provide for any process necessary.” The third question the court did not answer was whether due process requires the government to provide “within a reasonable time” a further factual basis for the visa denial.

The outcome of the case could have a ripple effect for immigrants like Acensio, who rarely win challenges to government visa denials. His lawyers fear that if the Supreme Court sides with the Biden administration, former President Trump, if re-elected, would use the decision and its underlying authority to justify blanket bans on people from certain countries, as he did while in office .

Acensio was living in the US illegally when he and Muoz married in 2010. The final step in his green card application was returning to his native El Salvador for a consular interview. The government denied this, saying Acensio would likely engage in illegal activities if allowed back into the US

In court proceedings, consular officials argued that they did not owe the family an explanation for the decision. They cited the doctrine of consular non-reviewability, which prevents judicial review of visa determinations by consular officials as long as the decision is prima facie legitimate and bona fide. But in certain cases, a U.S. citizen who proves he was harmed by the denial can challenge the doctrine.

The couple learned that in 2018 based on

based

After Acensio’s personal interview, a criminal investigation and an examination of his tattoos, federal authorities believed he was a member of MS-13, the Salvadoran criminal gang that started in Los Angeles in the 1980s, according to court documents.

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