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The Supreme Court said on Tuesday that the government can indefinitely detain certain immigrants who fear persecution in their home countries if they were deported and then illegally reentered the United States.
The court — split 6-3 along ideological lines — ruled that immigrants who illegally reentered the US after being deported have no right to a court hearing on whether they should be released while their claims are being considered by the government.
The case involves people who had been previously deported and, when detained after re-entering the United States illegally, claimed that they would be persecuted or tortured if sent back. One man is a citizen of El Salvador who said he was immediately threatened by a gang after being deported from the US.
An immigration officer determined that the immigrants had a “reasonable fear” for their safety if returned to their countries, setting in motion an evaluation process that can take months or years.
The issue for the court was whether the government could hold the immigrants without having an immigration judge weigh in. The immigrants and the Trump administration, which briefed and argued the case before President Joe Biden’s inauguration in January, pointed to different provisions of immigration law to make their respective cases.
Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the conservative majority, said the second provision “governs the detention of aliens subject to reinstated orders of removal, meaning those aliens are not entitled to a bond hearing while they pursue withholding of removal.”
The Trump administration, in appealing a ruling by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal, also argued for the second provision, claiming that immigrants facing deportation released on bond would go on the run.
Alito appeared to nod to that argument in his ruling.
“In addition, aliens who reentered the country illegally after removal have demonstrated a willingness to violate the terms of a removal order, and they therefore may be less likely to comply with the reinstated order.” he wrote.
Justice Stephen Byer, in his dissent, framed the issue differently.
“But why would Congress want to deny a bond hearing to individuals who reasonably fear persecution or torture, and who, as a result, face proceedings that may last for many months or years…? I can find no satisfactory answer to this question,” he wrote.
The federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, had ruled in the immigrants’ favor, but other appellate courts had sided with the government. Tuesday’s decision sets a nationwide rule, but one that affects what lawyers for the immigrants called a relatively small subset of non-citizens.
With Post wires
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