Decision keeps it impossible for some kids to immigrate

Minor children of would-be legal immigrants can wait in line for visas with their parents. Except the waiting lines are so long that the children are no longer children if and when the visas are granted. Then they have to go back to the far end of the line and start over.

That line just got longer.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday overturned a lower-court ruling that would have allowed more children to immigrate into the country with their parents without being reclassified by immigration officials when they turn 21 and "age out" during their parents' wait for a visa.

Those waits can take decades for those trying to immigrate legally even though they are sponsored by immediate family members who are already citizens or legal permanent residents.

According to government statistics, some adult children of U.S. citizens who received visas today to immigrate from Mexico or the Phillipines applied for those visas in 1993 — 21 years ago. Their children, the grandchildren of the sponsors, would only be technically eligible to migrate with their parents if they were younger than 21 ...