Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Salazar-Luviano v. Mukasey (9th Cir. - Dec. 23, 2008)

Let's read the first paragraph in the fact section of the opinion and see where we think this one is going. You can basically tell not only what the case is probably about, but also where the panel is likely headed. Here goes:

"Salazar-Luviano is a fifty-five-year-old citizen of Mexico, originally admitted to the United States as a lawful permanent resident in 1976. He has lived in the Los Angeles metropolitan area for over thirty years with his wife, also a lawful permanent resident. As of 2005, Salazar-Luviano had four U.S. citizen children and five U.S. citizen grandchildren."

Hmmm. Let's see. An immigration case, right? Yep. The U.S. is trying to deport him, correct? Yep. What equities did the court just introduce us to? He's elderly. He's been here a long time. He's been married for over thirty years. He's got lots of U.S. citizen children and grandchildren. I bet they're saying all this just so we feel really good when the court holds that we're forcing the guy out of the country, right?

Oh, wait. One more hint about how it comes out. It's two days before Christmas.

Yeah. This one's not too tough.