Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Hector (479 U.S. 85)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided November 17, 1986 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 479 U.S. 85 · 107 S. Ct. 379
- Decided
- November 17, 1986
- Term
- October Term 1986
- Vote
- 7–2
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Per Curiam. Virginia Hector, a native and citizen of Dominica, West Indies, entered the United States in April 1975 as a nonimmi-grant visitor for pleasure. She has remained in this country illegally since April 30, 1975, when her authorization to stay expired. The youngest of her four children, a 10-year-old boy, resides with her here; the other three children live with their grandparents in Dominica. In 1983, two of Hector’s nieces, United States citizens aged 10 and 11, came to live with her in order to attend school in what their parents perceived to be a superior educational system. The nieces’ parents continue to reside in Dominica. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) instituted deportation proceedings against Hector in July 1983. She conceded deportability, but applied for suspension of deportation pursuant to § 244(a)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (Act), 66 Stat. 214, as amended, 8 U. S. C. § 1254(a)(1). That section authorizes the Attorney General, in his discretion, to suspend deportation of an illegal alien, and to adjust the alien’s status to that of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, if the deportable alien “has been physically present in the United States for a continuous period of not less than seven years immediately preceding the date of . . . application, and proves that during all of such period he was and is a…
Excerpt of a 12,787-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.