Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20-315_q713.pdf
Page Number: 8.0

6 

SANCHEZ v. MAYORKAS 

Opinion of the Court 

but not in lawful status—think of someone who legally en-
tered the United States on a student visa, but stayed in the
country long past graduation.  On the other hand, a foreign
national can be in lawful status but not admitted—think of 
someone who entered the country unlawfully, but then re-
ceived  asylum.  The  latter  is  the  situation  Sanchez  is  in, 
except  that  he  received  a  different  kind  of  lawful  status.
The TPS statute permits him to remain in the country; and
it deems him in nonimmigrant status for purposes of apply-
ing to become an LPR.  But the statute does not construc-
tively “admit” a TPS recipient—that is, “consider[]” him as 
having entered the country “after inspection and authoriza-
tion.”  §1254a(f )(4); §1101(a)(13)(A).  And because a grant 
of TPS does not come with a ticket of admission, it does not 
eliminate the disqualifying effect of an unlawful entry. 

Sanchez resists this conclusion by asserting an “indissol-
uble  relationship  between  admission  and  nonimmigrant 
status.”  Reply Brief 2 (emphasis in original).  While con-
ceding  that  some  forms  of  status  (e.g.,  asylum)  do  not  re-
quire admission, Sanchez contends that nonimmigrant sta-
tus always does: “One cannot obtain lawful nonimmigrant 
status without admission.”  Ibid.  In support of that claim,
Sanchez points to §1184 of the immigration laws, entitled 
“[a]dmission of nonimmigrants.”  And he asserts that it is 
impossible to “identif[y] any category of individuals who are 
lawful  nonimmigrants  but  are  not  admitted—because  no 
such category exists.”  Brief for Petitioners 20.  So (Sanchez
concludes) when the law provides that a TPS recipient shall
be  “considered  . . .  as  a  nonimmigrant”  for  purposes  of 
§1255, it is necessarily saying that he shall also be consid-
ered as admitted. 

But to begin with, §1184 does not (as Sanchez contends) 
require admission for nonimmigrant status.  That provision
states that “[t]he admission to the United States of any al-
ien  as  a  nonimmigrant  shall  be  for  such  time  and  under 
such  conditions  as  the  [Secretary  of  Homeland  Security]