When Luis Asencio Cordero was asked to strip so photos of his tattoos could be taken as part of his green card application process, he thought it was a formality, and so did Sandra Munoz, a prominent civil rights attorney in L.A., who also happens to be Cordero's wife.
What happened next led to an eight-year legal battle that could be heard this year by the US Supreme Court.
KNX News spoke with Munoz, who said, "Initially, when he was denied residency when he was denied entry into the United States, we weren't told why."
She said they tried everything they could to find out but could not get an answer, so they suspected it must be about the tattoos.
They submitted declarations stating the tattoos were not gang-related, but that did not work, so they filed a lawsuit in federal district court, where ultimately, the Ninth Circuit found in the couple's favor.
It took three years and a lawsuit to finally get a reason, but now, Munoz says that the Biden administration has appealed the Supreme Court ruling, so they are waiting to hear back whether the court will accept the review and allow Cordero into the United States from El Salvador.
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Munoz said there's no way they genuinely believe her husband is a gang member because he doesn't have a criminal record in the US or El Salvador.
She said the heart of the issue is regulations that prohibit immigrants from appealing or reviewing any decisions made by the consulate. "I think it's fundamentally such an unfair process. One person at a consulate office can just make an arbitrary decision, and that decision impacts, I mean, in my case... stripped my marriage of so much time together," Munoz said.
Munoz said she doesn't understand why the Biden administration is fighting them so hard but believes the administration apparently has an interest in maintaining the consular nonreviewability mandates.
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