Supreme Court to decide if ICE can detain undocumented immigrants indefinitely - USA Today
WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court will decide whether the Trump administration can detain millions of immigrants without giving them a chance to seek bond, even if they have lived in the U.S. for years without criminal records.
The court on Oct. 1 agreed to review the administration’s reinterpretation of a decades-old immigration law in a major test of President Donald Trump’s hardline approach to immigration.
Opponents of the policy say it’s an unlawful attempt to pressure immigrants to leave voluntarily, including people with long-pending citizenship applications and those with U.S. born children.
The tens of thousands of detentions that have already occurred have led to a deluge of court challenges, most of which the government has lost.
If the Supreme Court sides with the administration, millions of immigrants could be subject to mandatory detention under a 1996 law that was understood for decades to apply to people picked up at or near the border.
Immigrants apprehended in cities and towns where they’ve been living in the U.S., on the other hand, had been allowed to be released after paying a bond, if they could convince an immigration judge that they are not a danger to the public and would show up at future court proceedings.
"The policy at issue in these cases is truly a radical break with the law," said Michael Tan, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which is defending the immigrants.
The administration argues that the policy prevents undocumented immigrants from evading deportation.
"The law is very clear, but Democrats and activist judges haven't wanted to enforce it. This administration WILL," then-Attorney General Pam Bondi said on social media after a divided federal appeals court based in Missouri ruled for the administration in March.
While one other appeals court has also backed the policy, nine have ruled against the administration.
"Over three decades, five administrations implemented the disputed statutes just as we conclude today that their texts require," Judge Lara Montecalvo wrote in August when a divided appeals court based in Massachusetts said immigrants already in the country have a right to bond hearings after being picked up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The case is not the only challenge to the administration’s crackdown on immigration that the Supreme Court is considering this term.
The court will debate in December whether the administration can deport immigrants to countries other than their own without giving them the chance to show they could be persecuted or tortured there.
Decisions in both cases are expected by the end of June.
