Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-587_5ifl.pdf
Page Number: 48.0

10 

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY v. 
REGENTS OF UNIV. OF CAL. 

Opinion of THOMAS, J. 

humanitarian  reasons  or  [a]  significant  public  benefit,”  8 
U. S. C.  §1182(d)(5)(A);  provide  for  temporary  protected 
status when the Attorney General finds that removal to a
country with an ongoing armed conflict “would pose a seri-
ous threat to [an alien’s] personal safety,” §1254a(b)(1)(A); 
and allow the Secretary of Homeland Security (in consulta-
tion with the Secretary of State) to waive visa requirements
for certain aliens for up to 90 days, §§1187(a)–(d). 

The immigration laws are equally complex and detailed 
when  it  comes  to  obtaining  lawful  permanent  residence. 
Congress  has  expressly  specified  numerous  avenues  for 
obtaining  an  immigrant  visa,  which  aliens  may  then  use
to  become  lawful  permanent  residents.    §§1201,  1255(a). 
Among  other  categories,  immigrant  visas  are  available  to
specified family-sponsored aliens, aliens with advanced de-
grees  or  exceptional  abilities,  certain  types  of  skilled  and 
unskilled  workers,  “special  immigrants,”  and  those  enter-
ing  the  country  to  “engag[e]  in  a  new  commercial  enter-
prise.”  §§1153(a)–(b),  1154;  see  also  Congressional  Re-
search  Service,  Nonimmigrant  and  Immigrant  Visa 
Categories, at 6–7 (Table 2).  Refugees and asylees also may 
receive  lawful  permanent  residence  under  certain  condi-
tions,  §1159;  8  CFR  §§209.1,  209.2.4    As  with  temporary  
lawful  presence,  each  avenue  to  lawful  permanent  resi-
dence status has its own set of rules and exceptions.5 

As the Fifth Circuit held in the DAPA litigation, a conclu-
sion  with  which  then-Attorney  General  Sessions  agreed,
“specific and detailed provisions[ of] the INA expressly and 

—————— 

4 The immigration statutes also provide for conditional lawful perma-
nent residence status.  See §1186a(b)(1)(A)(i) (two years for spouses to 
demonstrate that the marriage “was [not] entered into for the purpose of 
procuring  an  alien’s  admission  as  an  immigrant”);  §1186b  (qualifying 
business entrepreneurs). 

5 For instance, Congress has carved out rules for aliens who served in
the Armed Forces, §§1438–1440, and alien spouses who have been sub-
ject to domestic abuse, §§1186a(c)(4)(C)–(D).