Motor-Voter Deportation: Fitzpatrick v. Sessions (CA7 Affirms BIA, Matter of Fitzpatrick)

Fitzpatrick v. Sessions, Feb. 13, 2017 - "After discovering that Fitzpatrick had voted in a federal election, the Department of Homeland Security initiated removal proceedings. An Immigration Judge and then the Board of Immigration Appeals (initially and when denying reconsideration) decided that she must indeed leave the United States, even though she has led a productive and otherwise-unblemished life in this country, is married to a U.S. citizen, and has three U.S.-citizen children. Her children were born in Peru and naturalized after arrival. Her own 2007 application for citizenship is what brought her 2006 voting to light, when response to questions asked of all applicants she honestly described her voting history. ... The panel inquired at oral argument whether Fitzpatrick is the kind of person the Attorney General and the Department of Homeland Security want removed from the United States. The answer was yes — that consideration had been given to exercising prosecutorial discretion in Fitzpatrick’s favor, but that the possibility had been resolved adversely to her. That decision is entrusted to executive officials, leaving us no option other than to deny the petitions for review of the BIA’s decisions."