It has been more than a generation since the national spotlight has shone as brightly on our immigration system as it has during these early months of President Trump’s administration. Immigrants and refugees who have sought – or currently are seeking – safety and opportunity in America, confront a pervasive climate of confusion and fear. The Trump administration’s hostility toward immigrants permeates its Muslim travel ban, informs its misguided and costly decision to build a wall along our Southern border, and guides its expanded detention and deportation rules. One would be hard-pressed to find an administration more committed to punishing immigrants and their families than the current one.
Because of the Trump administration’s unprecedented attacks on immigrants and its attempts to rewrite and reinterpret immigration laws and policies, the judiciary is also in the spotlight. The courts now provide a last and vital line of relief to immigrants. As we have seen in the case of President Trump’s repeated attempts at targeted and discriminatory travel bans, our federal courts can effectively restrain the excesses of the White House.
But as the White House continues to attack immigrants’ rights, we are deeply concerned that the highest court in the land will fail to meet its obligations in the face of a reckless and punitive Trump administration. This is especially the case now that President Trump has nominated Judge Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. A conservative and a self-described originalist, Judge Gorsuch has proven that he is no friend to immigrant workers and their families. While he has presented himself as an affable and charming candidate before the Senate Judiciary Committee these last couple of weeks, Judge Gorsuch’s nomination poses a serious threat to immigrant rights in the United States.
For evidence of his hostility toward immigrants we need look only at the case of Ramón Zamora. When a grocery warehouse employer in Kansas was tipped off about a potential raid by immigration authorities seeking to check employee status, it immediately sought to verify the Social Security numbers (SSNs) of hundreds of its workers, including Zamora, who was a naturalized citizen of the United States.
Zamora presented his supervisor with his Social Security card, a report from the Social Security Administration (SSA) containing a record of his earnings, and his naturalization certificate, which the company had said would alone be sufficient, but his supervisor accused him of stealing someone else’s Social Security number and told him to come back with a different SSN. It was only after he provided a certified, stamped letter from the SSA verifying his social security number, and the supervisor confirmed its legitimacy by calling the SSA, that Zamora was called back to work. Zamora returned to work and demanded an apology and an explanation for his suspension. His supervisor fired him instead.
Zamora sued, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, alleging the company had discriminated because of his race and national origin, and in Zamora v. Elite Logistics, Inc., he initially won relief before a three-judge panel. Enter Judge Gorsuch.
In a reversal of the panel’s ruling, Gorsuch and a majority of his fellow Tenth Circuit judges (with five judges dissenting) tossed out Zamora’s discrimination claims over his suspension and his firing. Judge Gorsuch claimed that even though the documents Zamora initially offered should have been enough to allow Zamora to return to work, the supervisor was ignorant of the law and afraid of being fined, therefore his demand for further documentation was reasonable. The implication of the ruling was that employers could feel free to fire people they merely suspect of working illegally, even if their suspicion is the result of ignorance of the law.
The Zamora case is part of a pattern of Gorsuch decisions. Over and again he has demonstrated a preference for corporations and employers over everyday workers. In this way, it is easy to understand why, should the Senate confirm him, there will be grave unease that he would vote in lockstep with the blatantly pro-corporate, anti-immigrant President who nominated him.
It’s clear Gorsuch lacks the support in the Senate to pass the 60-vote threshold that is standard procedure for Supreme Court nominations. Instead of nominating a judge who can garner bipartisan support, the Senate GOP has gone nuclear in order to install a Trump rubber stamp against the freedoms, protections, and rights of workers and immigrant families, including naturalized U.S. Citizens. In the face of an administration determined to undermine our tradition of welcoming immigrants, we need justices that will fight to protect our values as a welcoming nation. Judge Gorsuch is not that man.