Supreme Court Ruling Makes Curious Exception For Illegal Migrants Ordered To Leave Country On A Saturday

The Supreme Court ruled that weekends and holidays cannot be counted when foreign nationals are given deadlines to leave the United States.

In a split 5-4 decision, a majority of justices on the nation’s highest court ruled in favor of Hugo Abisai Monsalvo Velazquez, a Mexican national who had been living unlawfully in the U.S. for years and ordered deported. Velazquez successfully argued that his 60-day notice to leave the country — which ended on a Saturday — should have provided more flexibility for weekends and holidays.

“Does every calendar day count?” Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority, wrote. “Or does the statute operate to extend a deadline that falls on a weekend or legal holiday to the next business day?”

“Here, as elsewhere, the term ‘days’ operates to extend a deadline that falls on a weekend or legal holiday to the next business day,” Gorsuch wrote.

Conservatives Gorsuch and Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s three liberals in the majority’s ruling. The other four conservative justices disagreed, arguing that they should have sent the case back to a lower court to decide whether federal courts even have jurisdiction over the matter.

In a dissenting opinion, Justices Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh argued that the majority’s opinion essentially creates a two-day extension for those ordered to leave the country.

“Petitioner gives us no reason to believe — and I am aware of none — that the roads to Mexico, his home country, were closed; so he could have driven or taken a bus across the border,” Alito wrote. “He also could have flown to Mexico or any other country that would admit him.”

“Nevertheless, the Court holds that he was entitled to a 2-day extension because the last day of his voluntary departure deadline happened to fall on a weekend,” Alito continued. “There is no justification for that decision.”