Los Angeles couple’s Supreme Court case sheds light on immigrant visa rejections
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments next month in the case of a Los Angeles man who was denied a green card after marrying a U.S. citizen, in part because of his tattoos. Ahead of that hearing, a dozen other U.S. citizens submitted statements Thursday detailing how their lives were similarly devastated by consular visa denials. Lawyers think thousands of families could be in similar situations. Luis Acensio Cordero was denied a visa to return to the U.S. from El Salvador and has been separated from his wife, Sandra Muñoz, since 2015. The couple sued, arguing the federal government had violated her constitutional right to marriage and due process by denying Acensio’s visa without providing a timely explanation. The high court will consider whether the refusal of a visa to a U.S. citizen’s noncitizen spouse “impinges upon a constitutionally protected interest of the citizen,” and, if so, whether notifying a visa applicant that they were deemed inadmissible suffices as due process. If the court sides with Muñoz, other families could be entitled to some explanation about why they were denied visas.