Thread by @matt_cam

like so many #immigrationlaw rulings before it, today's #SCOTUS decision on the "stop-time" rule in deportation proceedings (1) can't be described to someone not already familiar in fewer than 3 paragraphs, (2) will make you lol if you think about it too much, (3) will save lives

https://twitter.com/mjs_DC/status/1387771601211600899

All you really need to know about this extremely-specifically-important ruling is that it gives possibly tens of thousands of families a chance to stay together in the US who wouldn't have had that chance before. That's it. That's why it matters.

So that's the good news! The bad is that the same bad law still requires applicants to show that qualifying family members (but not themselves) will suffer "exceptional & extremely unusual hardship" upon deportation--eg, substantially beyond what other close families would suffer

This law is the closest thing to what most Americans already believe exists in immigration court--the chance to show character, community/family ties, etc--but the standard of proof is set so high that it openly discounts & devalues healthy loving families in a really gross way

hard not to read this & see that Congress didn't believe that immigrant families are capable of the same bonds as "we" are, and/or that these bonds are more meaningful for "our" families. Today's ruling is a kitchen renovation in a structure which needs to be demolished