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Washington, DC - In November, 2008 the 9th Court of Appeals overturned a prior ruling for Orozco v. Mukasey and determined that individuals who enter the United States illegally may still be eligible to adjust their status and apply for a Green Card, under certain circumstances.

Mr. Orozco entered the country in 1996 with someone else''s Green Card. He later married a U.S. citizen, but was still faced with deportation orders. In the court proceedings, Mr. Orozco maintained that because he had been inspected and admitted into the United States, albeit with a fraudulent green card, he met the requirements to apply for an adjustment of status. However, the courts disagreed with him and in March, 2008 Mr. Orozco''s petition was denied. Under a long-standing rule of the Immigration and Nationality Act, or IRA, an alien can apply for adjustment of status to a green card holder if they were "inspected and admitted or paroled into the US." Thus, the original March ruling found that even though his documents were inspected and he was granted admissibility, because he used a fraudulent document, this was not grounds for lawful entry and he was not eligible to apply for an adjustment of status. More recently, however, the ruling was overturned, and deemed that even though Mr. Orozco used a fraudulent document to enter the United States, because he was "inspected and admitted" he does qualify for an adjustment of status. Overall, this ruling signifies that in certain circumstances immigrants who enter the country illegally can file for an adjustment of status, provided they fulfill the inspection and admissibility requirement.