WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – A majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices yesterday questioned whether a legal immigrant from the Dominican Republic who pleaded guilty in New York to attempted arson in 1999 has grounds to appeal his threatened deportation.
Based on the one-hour oral argument, the court appears likely to rule against Brooklyn resident Jorge Luna Torres, who refers to himself as George Luna.
Luna, who came to the United States with his family at age 9 in 1983, was told by U.S. immigration officials in 2006 after he visited the Dominican Republic that he was subject to deportation because of his 1999 conviction for attempted third-degree arson.
He was given a one-day prison sentence for the crime.
The question before the Supreme Court was whether the attempted arson conviction, a felony under New York law, counted as an aggravated felony under federal law.
