WASHINGTON (CNS) — The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision May 4 that said the government was wrong to prosecute illegal immigrants for identity theft in certain types of cases was the latest of several rulings and policy announcements that will effectively roll back approaches on immigration initiated by the Bush administration.

In Flores-Figueroa v. United States, the court said the federal government was wrong to charge Ignacio Carlos Flores-Figueroa with identity theft when he was found to have used someone else’s Social Security and alien registration numbers in documents for employment. The case could have implications for other immigrants who faced similar charges under a tough prosecution strategy employed over the last year or two.

That decision came three days after a federal district court ruling in California that ordered the federal government to reopen the immigration cases of dozens of foreign widows whose U.S.-citizen spouses died before their applications for green cards could be processed. In some cases, immigrants with pending applications for legal residency have been ordered deported after their spouses died before their cases could be processed.