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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Thursday that U.S. citizens do not have a constitutional right to guarantee their noncitizen spouse admittance into the country, something President Joe Biden tried to cement in his most recent executive order concerning the ongoing border invasion.
American Sandra Muñoz sued the federal government after her husband, Luis Asencio-Cordero, an MS-13 gang member, was denied a visa by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2015 due to “unlawful activity” the immigration officer suspected based on a gang affiliation tattoo he spotted on the El Salvador native during the interview.
Asencio-Cordero, a noncitizen, eventually “disavowed any gang membership” and, with Muñoz’s help, tried to appeal the visa case with the Department of State. The federal agency, however, agreed with USCIS’s decision, effectively asserting (along with the Supreme Court’s judgment Thursday) that a noncitizen like Asencio-Cordero has “no constitutional right to enter the United States.”
Muñoz claimed that this decision abridged her Fifth Amendment “liberty interest” and falsely construed her right to “fundamental right to marriage” as a “right to reside with her noncitizen spouse in the United States.”
The Ninth Circuit initially agreed that the Due Process Clause afforded Muñoz the right to a “facially legitimate and bona fide reason” for her husband’s denial. The high court, however, overturned this judgment.
“Muñoz’s claim to a procedural due process right in someone else’s legal proceeding would have unsettling collateral consequences,” the court wrote. “Her position would usher in a
