In a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, it was decided in an uncommon 6-3 decision that courts are permitted to review certain evaluations made by immigration judges. This decision was in favor of an immigrant resisting his deportation back to Trinidad and Tobago. Justice Sonia Sotomayor authored the majority decree in Wilkinson v. Garland, siding with Situ Kamu Wilkinson, a Trinidadian, on a legal matter pivotal for his potential to stay in the United States following a police discovery of illegal substances in a house where he was conducting repairs.
As Justice Sonia Sotomayor expressed in the majority announcement, “Mixed questions of law and fact, even when they are primarily factual, fall within the statutory definition of ‘questions of law’ … and are therefore reviewable”. This ruling gives judges additional power to review decisions made in immigration cases, a factor that might well have an impact on similar future cases.
The full details of this ruling can be read in the original article, available here.