A federal court dealt a blow to the Trump administration’s mass detention of unauthorized immigrants in a new ruling that held many of them should have had opportunities to be released while awaiting deportation decisions.
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determined that the federal government for more than 30 years has treated people detained inside the U.S. differently than immigrants apprehended at the border.
At the border, immigrants can be detained and deported almost immediately without a court hearing. Further inside the country, unauthorized immigrants are given a chance to post bond and return to their families while proceedings unfold.
The Trump administration, by contrast, does not distinguish between the two groups — a practice that has filled detention centers and clogged federal courts with thousands of petitions for release. “Some of these detained aliens have resided in the United States for lengthy periods,” wrote 9th Circuit Judge Daniel Bress, who was nominated to the court by President Donald Trump.
Bress acknowledged conflicting language in federal laws, but he pointed to the long record of how different presidents have interpreted the law.
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“We have 30 years of action — the government actively treating unadmitted aliens present in the interior of the country as entitled to bond hearings,” he wrote.
The case turned on immigrants held in the Seattle area, but it covers the entire West, including California.
The appeal court’s 2-1 split ruling mirrors the divide among the lower courts on this issue. Because the lower courts have issued different rulings, it is almost certain that the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the case.
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CalMatters reporter Lynn La contributed to this story.
