Andrew Giles has a reputation as the most sued person in Australia.

A conscientious man in a controversial portfolio, for the immigration minister being the respondent to literally hundreds of cases a year just comes with the territory.

When the high court ruled in the NZYQ decision that indefinite detention is unlawful if it is not possible to deport the person, overturning a two-decade-old precedent, the legal terrain got even rockier.

The Albanese government concedes it is facing three years of litigation to determine the bounds of when a person has “no real prospect” of their removal from Australia “becoming practicable in the reasonably foreseeable future”.

The rushed legislation imposing ankle bracelets and curfews, and criminal penalties for breach of visa conditions, is also under challenge.

This is the pipeline of cases the government is facing and in some cases, aggressively managing, to prevent another disastrous defeat.

On 17 April the high court will hear the case of ASF17, an Iranian man detained for more than a decade who refuses to meet Iranian authorities because he fears for his life if he is removed to Iran because he is bisexual.

The case will test whether people in immigration detention must be released if their refusal to cooperate has prevented them being deported.

Leaked internal documents reveal the government believes more than 170 people might have to be released if it loses the case.

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In public and in private the government is confident of victory. Nevertheless, it is attempting to legislate powers to........

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