President Trump on Tuesday called on Congress to pass stricter immigration laws after Justice Neil Gorsuch cast the deciding vote in the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision that ruled in favor of an immigrant threatened with deportation.
“Today’s Court decision means that Congress must close loopholes that block the removal of dangerous criminal aliens, including aggravated felons,” Trump tweeted.
“This is a public safety crisis that can only be fixed by Congress — House and Senate must quickly pass a legislative fix to ensure violent criminal aliens can be removed from our society,” he added.
The Supreme Court earlier in the day sided with James Garcia Dimaya, a Filipino immigrant who the government sought to deport after his second first-degree burglary conviction in California.
{mosads}The court ruled that the convictions did not qualify as cause for removal because the law’s definition of a crime of violence is too vague.
Gorsuch, who Trump nominated last year, sided with the court’s four liberal justices in the case. Trump did not mention Gorsuch in his tweet.
In delivering the opinion of the court, Justice Elena Kagan relied on a 2015 ruling in which the court said a similar clause in the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) that defined a “violent felony” was unconstitutionally void for vagueness.
Trump earlier this month sent out a series of tweets over the course of a few days calling for Congress to enact tougher immigration laws. He complained that existing laws “do not easily allow us to send those crossing our Southern Border back where they came from.”
In a statement after Tuesday’s ruling, a Justice Department spokesman called on Congress to close loopholes that allow “criminal aliens” to remain in the country.