SCOTUS Rules Weekends and Holidays Cannot Count Toward Deportation Deadlines
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Wednesday that weekends and legal holidays cannot be counted in the deportation deadlines for foreign nationals.
The decision centered on the case of Hugo Abisai Monsalvo Velazquez, who was living illegally in the US and was given a 60-day notice to leave the country. Velazquez argued that the deadline should exclude non-business days, extending his time to depart voluntarily.
Writing for the majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch questioned whether every calendar day counts, or does the statute operate to extend a deadline that falls on a weekend or legal holiday to the next business day?”
“Here, as elsewhere, the term ‘days’ operates to extend a deadline that falls on a weekend or legal holiday to the next business day,” Gorsuch wrote.
The dissenting judges, however, argued the court should have sent the case back to a lower court to determine whether the federal judiciary even had jurisdiction. Justices Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh criticized the decision, calling it unjustified.
“Petitioner gives us no reason to believe — and I am aware of none — that the roads to Mexico, his home country, were closed; so he could have driven or taken a bus across the border,” Alito wrote. “He also could have flown to Mexico or any other country that would admit him.”
“Nevertheless, the Court holds that he was entitled to a 2-day extension because the last day of his voluntary departure deadline happened to fall on a weekend,” he continued. “There is no justification for that decision.”
He also warned that the ruling could offer a “windfall” to other illegal immigrants by giving more time to those whose deadlines fall on weekends compared to those with weekday deadlines.
The ruling comes as the Trump administration continues its efforts to accelerate deportation proceedings and increase pressure on illegal immigrants to self-deport. The administration recently reinstated a modified version of the app used for asylum seekers under the Biden administration, which now allows illegal immigrants to declare their intention to self-deport.
