9th U.S. Circuit justices hear Idaho cases

MOSCOW — A Mexican man seeking to stay with his wife and children in Idaho has fought deportation all the way to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But even if he prevails, he is likely to lose.

Gonzalez-Gonzalez v. Bondi led the docket Tuesday before the three-justice appeals court panel at University of Idaho College of Law in Moscow.

The Board of Immigration Appeals underestimated the extent of a family’s misery when it decided to deport the Mexican father, Gabriel Gonzalez-Gonzalez, who was the main breadwinner, said Boise attorney John Shackelford.

To stay in the U.S., Gonzalez-Gonzalez needed to show his deportation caused “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” for his two teenage sons, who are U.S. citizens. When they rule within a couple months, it can’t make a difference because the case started in 2019. By June this year, the youngest child will be 21-years-old. Wouldn’t that make the case moot? asked Circuit Judge Ryan D. Nelson.

Jesi J. Carlson, U.S. Department of Justice attorney, said if the justices favored Gonzalez-Gonzalez, the case would return to immigration officials to reconsider. The hardship argument can’t fly because the children are adults capable of fending for themselves.

Senior Justice N. Randy Smith quizzed Carlson, saying it was a “total abuse” for immigration officials to deport a father and then argue that two older siblings and a mother — also Mexicans with illegal citizenship status — can support the two teenagers.

“The only reason you say he should be sent away is because the other illegal immigrants are going to work harder to support the American kids,” Smith said. “That’s what this case says.”

Carlson replied that officials considered a broader context of facts. She stuck to the position that the case simply didn’t meet the high hardship standard to let the father stay in the US..

The last time the 9th U.S. Circuit visited the UI was five years ago, said Stephen Kenyon, District of Idaho clerk of court for the U.S. District and Bankruptcy Courts.

Kenyon noted that the Gonzalez-Gonzalez case — along with appeals from a city worker whistleblower and a major drug case also heard by the 9th U.S. Circuit justices — offered UI law students a great variety to sit in on.

UI College of Law Professor Geoffrey Heeren, who runs the college’s Immigration Litigation and Appellate Clinic, said it was a valuable experience for students to see the justices do their work in Moscow. His third-year law students sometimes make arguments before the 9th U.S. Circuit in Portland or Seattle.

Heeren said he was glad to see the justices highlighting an immigration case.

“We’re talking about breaking up families here,” Heeren said. “I hope that’s something people care about.”

Nelson, Smith and Senior Circuit Judges Richard C Tallman will be in Coeur d’Alene today hearing two cases: one from a man convicted in a drug case and a second from a man who claims a cell tower caused him to have heart problems.

Ferguson can be reached at [email protected].