The Supreme Court will hear the Trump administration's appeal regarding the legality of detaining immigrants convicted of crimes without bond hearings. The case could impact prolonged detention policies for individuals facing deportation.
The Supreme Court's decision could significantly impact the government's authority to detain immigrants facing deportation and the due process rights afforded to them.
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a case concerning the prolonged detention of certain convicted immigrants facing deportation proceedings, specifically whether such detentions without bond hearings violate due process rights. The Trump administration is appealing a ruling from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which stated that the Constitution's Fifth Amendment guarantees non-U.S. citizens convicted of certain crimes the right to a hearing to determine if they can be released on bail. This ruling stemmed from the cases of two men in New York, one convicted of assault and the other of sexually abusing a child, who were detained for extended periods.
One of the men, identified as G.M., a Dominican lawful permanent resident, was detained for 21 months after pleading guilty to assault before being released due to COVID-19 concerns. The other, Jamaican citizen Carol Black, convicted of child sexual abuse, was taken into custody in 2019 and later granted a bail hearing, eventually being released on a $15,000 bond.
The 2nd Circuit had previously found it unreasonable for Black to be detained for seven months and G.M. for nearly two years without a chance to qualify for bail, though it did not set a strict time limit. The court also stated that the government must prove by clear and convincing evidence that a detainee poses a flight risk or danger to the community if it seeks to maintain detention.
The issue reached the Supreme Court 25 years after the justices decided a similar question in Zadvydas v. Davis, concluding that detention is presumptively reasonable for about six months while authorities attempt to facilitate deportation. However, that benchmark has never been applied to ICE detainees with pending deportation proceedings. Courts across the country have been grappling with ICE’s dramatic expansion of mandatory detention to people who have resided in the country for years without incident. The Trump administration reinterpreted the law to treat immigrants detained anywhere in the country as though they had just crossed the border, subjecting them to mandatory detention. This policy shift has led to numerous lawsuits, with a split among federal appeals courts making Supreme Court review likely.
However, the two detainees at the heart of the case have argued that the matter is moot because one left the country in 2023 and the other has been released from detention for several years. The justices indicated they are weighing the 'mootness' issue in addition to the due process question.