In the case of Akio Kawashima and his wife, petitioners against Eric H. Holder Jr., Attorney General in 2011, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that filing a false tax return could be considered an "aggravated felony" under immigration law, leading to deportation. The Kawashimas were legal residents from Japan who had been living in California since 1984 but were charged with making false statements on their taxes. They pleaded guilty to violating provisions of the Internal Revenue Code which led to a loss for government exceeding $10,000. Under Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), any alien convicted of an aggravated felony may be deported; this includes crimes involving fraud or deceit resulting in loss exceeding $10,000 to victim(s). Despite arguments that tax offenses weren't explicitly listed as aggravated felonies under INA's definition section, majority held that they fell within broader category of offenses involving fraud or deceit.

In the dissenting opinion for Kawashima v. Holder, Justice Ginsburg argued that the majority's interpretation of the law was overly broad and inconsistent with Congressional intent. She contended that tax evasion should not be considered an "aggravated felony" leading to deportation under immigration laws unless it involves fraud or deceit causing a loss to victims exceeding $10,000. In her view, this threshold is not met by simply understating income on a tax return without more evidence of fraudulent intent or significant harm. Furthermore, she pointed out inconsistencies in how similar offenses are treated under different sections of immigration law due to the majority's interpretation. For instance, while certain non-fraudulent white-collar crimes may lead to deportation as aggravated felonies according to their logic, other arguably more serious offenses do not have such consequences because they don't involve fraud or deceit causing substantial losses.