We kick good people out of this country all the time, this is nothing unusual. That's the rationale of the Sixth Circuit's decision in Moctezuma-Reyes v. Garland.
Miguel Angel Moctezuma-Reyes is a Mexican citizen that entered the United States illegally in 2005. He made his way to Michigan where he lived with his wife, three of his four children (his daughter and two youngest sons), and his niece. His daughter, Ana, is 31 years old and a DACA recipient. His younger sons are aged 14 and 7 and are American citizens. His wife is also in the United States illegally. At the time, the courts picked up his story, Moctezuma-Reyes was working at a fence factory. He and his daughter, Ana, who worked as a medical assistant, were financially supporting the family, and they were sending some money back to Mexico to help there.
By any measure, Moctezuma-Reyes and his family were more than pulling their weight; they were thriving. So impressive was Moctezuma-Reyes’ record that the Sixth Circuit, not a court known for even the slightest sympathy, was moved to recite “much of what makes him the man he is: a devout Catholic, a loving father as well as husband, and a godfather to six children,” and concurred with an immigration judge’s observation that he is “a good person, a good father, a good husband.”
We know this little bit about Moctezuma-Reyes because we are told it by the Sixth Circuit in Moctezuma-Reyes v. Garland, a case where the court considered whether it should stop Moctezuma-Reyes from being kicked out of the country and sent back to Mexico. “Removed” they call it in the parlance of immigration law. Moctezuma-Reyes sought a cancellation of his removal from the United States.
His case wasn’t good enough, the court judged. He had to show that his removal would cause exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to some family member. This he could not do.
The reason Moctezuma-Reyes’ case fails appears to be that we kick good people out of the country all the time, notwithstanding that the laudatory and desirable things that are not just said about them but they are. So also kicking out Moctezuma-Reyes can’t cause exceptional or extremely unusual hardship; we do dumb, wrong things like that all the time, as a matter of course. And so he too must go.
The United States shouldn’t be in the business of kicking out people like Moctezuma-Reyes. I’m aware of the imperative of controlling immigration and securing the border. But Moctezuma-Reyes has been here nearly 20 years, and, truth be told, we need more not less like him. He and his family have dug in. They’re not only making it, they’re helping others do likewise. The court pleads that it “must uphold the law.” Then the law should be changed.
Robert L. Abell
www.RobertAbellLaw.com
