The Supreme Court will take up the case of a Los Angeles man who was denied a visa, in part because of his tattoos.
Luis Acensio Cordero has been separated from his wife Sandra Muñoz for nine years after he was denied a visa to return to the US. The couple filed a lawsuit, arguing that the federal government had violated Muñoz's constitutional right to marriage and due process by denying her husband a visa without providing a timely explanation.
They scored a victory in California's Ninth 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 will limit its review to the first two of three issues raised by the federal government in its appeal.
Those questions are “whether a consular officer's denial of a visa to the noncitizen spouse of a U.S. citizen affects a constitutionally protected interest of the citizen” and “whether, assuming such a constitutional interest exists, to notify a visa applicant that he or she was considered inadmissible… is sufficient to provide any appropriate process.”
The third issue that was not addressed by the court was whether due process requires the government to provide an additional factual basis for the visa denial “within a reasonable time.”
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 underlying authority to justify blanket bans on people from certain countries, as he did while he was in office. The charge.
Acensio had been living illegally in the United States when he and Muñoz married in 2010. The final step in his green card petition was to return to his native country, El Salvador, for a consular interview. The government denied this, saying Acensio is likely to engage in illegal activities if he is allowed to return to the US.
In the judicial process, 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 reviews of visa determinations made by consular officials as long as the decision is “apparently legitimate and in good faith.” But in certain cases, a U.S. citizen who proves that he was harmed by the denial can challenge the doctrine.
The couple learned in 2018 that, based on Acensio's personal interview, a criminal review and a review of his tattoos, the federal government believed he was a member of MS-13, the Salvadoran criminal gang that began in Los Angeles in the 1980s, according to court documents.
