The Supreme Court will hear arguments today on whether immigrants awaiting deportation can be detained for months or even years without a legal hearing. This case could have an impact on proposals made by President-Elect, Donald Trump, to crack down on undocumented immigrants and increase deportations.
The federal government is appealing a case, known as Jennings v. Rodriguez. The case, brought by American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawyers, represents around 1000 undocumented immigrants apprehended in and around the city of Los Angeles for committing deportable crimes or for illegal crossing of the border into the US. The ACLU made arguments in lower courts that clients were entitled to bail hearings after being in detention for six months so that a judge could decide on their eligibility for release while awaiting their proper immigration hearing.
The case dates back to 2007 when 38-year-old Alejandro Rodriguez launched a class action lawsuit after being held in indefinite detention for as long as three years without a hearing. Rodriguez had come to the US when he was an infant and was a legal permanent resident. He detained pending the result of deportation proceedings as a result of a conviction for drug possession.
If the ACLU again wins the case, as they did in a Los Angeles district court and San Francisco’s 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court could expand the rule, making bond hearings mandatory across the country.