Yesterday's SCOTUSBlog's Petition of the Day was filed in an immigration case. The petition, filed in Estrada v. United States , presents the following question: Whether the deprivation of a lawful permanent resident’s opportunity to pursue statutorily available discretionary relief from removal can render entry of the removal order fundamentally unfair. I did not think much of the issue until I read the petition (Wilmer Cutler is the Counsel of Record) and saw that there is a circuit split with the Second and Ninth Circuits on one side and the Sixth Circuit on the other.

Here are the facts of the case, which involves the removal of a long-term lawful permanent resident with U.S. citizen children, from the Petition:

"As of 2007, Emilio Estrada had been a lawful permanent resident of the United States for seventeen years, and for twelve years he had lived with his wife (also a lawful permanent resident) in McMinnville, Tennessee . There, he and his wife raised their four children (all U.S. citizens); the children were good students, and he actively participated in their lives. He was also the breadwinner for the family, having worked his way up to a management position. In 2007, Mr. Estrada was charged with possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of a controlled substance. Mr. Estrada’s guilty plea turned his life, and his family’s life, upside down. Because of the conviction, the government sought his removal from the country."

By the way, the Court could well hand down next week its decision in Sessions v. Dimaya , a criminal removal case argued at the very beginning of the Term in October.

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About The Author

Kevin Johnson is Dean, Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law, and Professor of Chicana/o Studies. He joined the UC Davis law faculty in 1989 and was named Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in 1998. Johnson became Dean in 2008. He has taught a wide array of classes, including immigration law, civil procedure, complex litigation, Latinos and Latinas and the law, and Critical Race Theory. In 1993, he was the recipient of the law school's Distinguished Teaching Award.Dean Johnson has published extensively on immigration law and civil rights. Published in 1999, his book How Did You Get to Be Mexican? A White/Brown Man's Search for Identity was nominated for the 2000 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. Dean Johnson’s latest book, Immigration Law and the US-Mexico Border (2011), received the Latino Literacy Now’s International Latino Book Awards – Best Reference Book. Dean Johnson blogs at ImmigrationProf, and is a regular contributor on immigration on SCOTUSblog. A regular participant in national and international conferences, Dean Johnson has also held leadership positions in the Association of American Law Schools and is the recipient of an array of honors and awards. He is quoted regularly by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and other national and international news outlets.