Court Opinion

ID: 9820918
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 07:41:10.941224+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:38:46.556657
License: Public Domain

PREGERSON, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
For all intents and purposes, Tania Casandra Bernal is an American. She has spent almost her entire life here: she was brought to the U.S. as an infant; she grew up surrounded by her family, all citizens or lawful permanent residents; and, as an older student, she was in the process of finishing high school. And like many Americans, she had begun to build her own family: she married a U.S. citizen, Andres Bernal, and together they gave life to a U.S. citizen baby girl named Andrea Erin Bernal.
Yet Tania Casandra Bernal, despite her strong ties to America, is suffering more severe punishment than had she been born in the U.S. Sentenced to two years in prison, she has now spent three years behind bars in a state prison and an immigration detention center. She faces an additional harsh penalty — removal to a country she does not know and that she fears.
This harsh punishment is one she will not bear alone: her five-year-old daughter Andrea, a U.S. citizen by birth, will also suffer because her mother is taken from her; she will be deprived of her mother’s love, counsel, and presence for many, many, many years. See Moore v. City of East Cleveland, 431 U.S. 494, 503-05, 97 S.Ct. 1932, 52 L.Ed.2d 531 (1977) (“Our decisions establish that the Constitution protects the sanctity of the family precisely because the institution of the family is deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition.”).
I respectfully dissent.