The White House on Wednesday called on Congress to pass legislation to make it easier to deport criminal aliens, after a Supreme Court ruling this week made it harder for authorities to deport immigrants who are convicted of certain crimes.
“Yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling preventing the removal of certain aliens convicted of aggravated felonies that constitute ‘crimes of violence’ highlights the danger posed by congressional inaction,” press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.
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Sanders implored lawmakers to “immediately pass a fix to close these loopholes so that the United States can promptly remove violent criminal aliens” from the United States.
“Unless Congress acts, the United States government will be unable to remove from our communities many non-citizens convicted of violent felonies, including in some cases domestic assault and battery, burglary, and child abuse,” she said.
The Supreme Court delivered a blow to President Trump on Tuesday when it handed down a 5-4 decision concerning an immigration law provision that was first challenged by the Obama administration. Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, who was appointed to the bench by Trump, sided with his liberal colleagues on the case. The court said a 2015 law that allows immigrants to be deported if they are convicted of a “crime of violence” did not define that term enough to make it usable for law enforcement.
“Today’s Court decision means that Congress must close loopholes that block the removal of dangerous criminal aliens, including aggravated felons,” Trump said in a series of tweets on Tuesday. “This is a public safety crisis that can only be fixed by states and cities throughout our country…”
Congress has faced significant pressure since last fall to fix major flaws in the current immigration system and provide a permanent fix for immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children with a parent or guardian. Though several deals were floated to the White House, none gained the president’s approval.
