Appeals court rejects Trump administration mandatory detention policy |
Appeals court rejects Trump administration mandatory detention policy
A federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s policy of detaining almost all those it is seeking to deport, determining they must be given the chance to seek bond amid their pursuit to remain in the country.
Figures of those being held in detention have swollen to historic levels under the Trump administration, with the government detaining those with no criminal record and who have already resided in the U.S. for years.
Judge Joseph Bianco, a Trump appointee, wrote that even if the administration’s reading of immigration detention statues “were plausible—and it is not,” the court would still have constitutional concerns over “what would be the broadest mass-detention-without bond mandate in our Nation’s history for millions of noncitizens.”
The 3-0 ruling from the Second Circuit brings together a Clinton and Biden appointee alongside a jurist appointed by President Trump. But the decision sets up a circuit court split with rulings from the fifth and eighth circuits.
In the latest ruling, however, Bianco notes that “over ninety percent of district court judges” have sided with migrants who have filed habeas corpus petitions seeking their release from immigration detention.
The Trump administration since July has sought to broadly detain migrants “for the duration of their removal proceedings,” a process that can take months or years.
It was a reversal from prior policy in which migrants were released on bond so long as they were not considered a public safety threat.
There are currently about 60,000 people in immigration detention, and 70 percent of them have no criminal convictions.
The ruling questions the disparity between immigration laws that call for the detention of migrants with consistent actions of Congress in funding detention space for just a fraction of those who might be held during deportation proceedings.
“The government offers no explanation for why the same Congress that was so concerned with the detention of 100,000 people…would have turned a blind eye to the consequences of mandating detention” for a group that could be as large as 2 million people, Bianco wrote.
“Moreover, it is even harder to explain why the government, if tasked with detaining the huge number of noncitizens covered by Section 1225, would have neglected for almost thirty years to increase its detention capacity enough to actually implement that mandate,” he added, referencing a section of U.S. immigration law.
Updated at 12:03 p.m. EDT
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