An amicus brief has been filed in the US Supreme Court by Human Rights First, together with Patterson, Belknap, Webb and Tyler LLP in the case of Jennings v. Rodriguez. The brief argues that the international human rights obligations of the US, including those in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, necessitate individual assessments and court reviews of detention for immigrants and asylum seekers being held in immigration detention in the country.
The filing of the brief was made on behalf of an expert group of amici in the field of international refugee law and human rights law. The group includes previous members of the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, current and former members of the UN Human Rights Committee, and leading scholars in the area of applying human rights law to immigrants and asylum seekers.
Eleanor Acer, from Human Rights First, says that the US cherishes liberty and has, via its treaty commitments, pledged to protect everyone from being arbitrarily detained and to have court reviews of all those in detention. It still insists, though, that immigrants and asylum seekers can be detained for more than six months without a hearing in an immigration court. There have been more people detained under the Obama administration than ever before.
Acer notes that some immigrants and asylum seekers are being kept in detention for several years, which is a clear violation of the treaty obligations of the US.