Key facts
- The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to uphold its immigration detention policy.
- The policy allows for the detention of immigrants without bond hearings, regardless of their length of residency in the U.S.
- This appeal challenges a federal appeals court ruling that rejected the administration's interpretation of immigration law.
- The administration argues that detaining individuals who entered illegally prevents them from evading hearings and ensures their removal.
- The Board of Immigration Appeals adopted the administration's interpretation last year.
The Trump administration is urging the Supreme Court to review its policy of detaining immigrants without bond hearings, even those who have resided in the United States for years. The administration filed a request with the court to overturn a May decision by the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which had rejected the administration's reinterpretation of a decades-old immigration law that underpins its mass detention strategy.
The administration's appeal comes after the Supreme Court issued significant immigration policy rulings. The solicitor general, D John Sauer, argued that detaining individuals who have entered the country illegally while their removal proceedings are ongoing is essential to prevent them from evading hearings and to ensure their eventual removal from the United States.
Last year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) adopted the position that non-citizens residing in the U.S. qualify as "applicants for admission" and are thus subject to mandatory detention, a departure from longstanding interpretations of immigration law. Under federal law, such applicants are ineligible for bond hearings while their cases progress through immigration courts.
The Board of Immigration Appeals, part of the Justice Department, issued a decision in September supporting this interpretation, leading immigration judges nationwide to order mandatory detentions. The Sixth Circuit's ruling, however, found that the administration had misinterpreted a provision of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. The court determined that migrants, including citizens of Mexico, El Salvador, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Guatemala who had lived in the U.S. for years before their arrest, were denied bond hearings in violation of their Fifth Amendment due process rights.