The U.S. Supreme Court has issued a 5-3 ruling declaring that asylum seekers—non-citizens—are not entitled to bail hearings and can languish in jail for years. Asylum seekers now face the prospect of lengthy confinement without any hope of bail—will now empower the Trump administration’s aggressive anti-immigrant policing.
The majority’s ruling in Jennings v. Rodriguez, written by Justice Samuel Alito, reverses and remands a ruling by the California-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which said a non-citizen could not be held for longer than six months without a bail hearing.
As Justice Stephen Breyer dissent noted (which Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor signed), the majority’s conclusion was at odds with the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the British Magna Carta. America's founding documents were based on enshrining the right to preserve liberty and obtain one’s day in court.
“The Fifth Amendment says that ‘no person shall be...deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.’ An alien is a ‘person.’ To hold him without bail is to deprive him of bodily ‘liberty.’ And, where there is no bail proceeding, there has been no bail-related ‘process’ at all. The Due Process Clause—itself reflecting the language of the Magna Carta—prevents arbitrary detention. Indeed, ‘freedom from bodily restraint has always been at the core of the liberty protected by the Due Process Clause from arbitrary governmental action.’” Breyer summed up by saying what the Court’s majority was doing was unconstitutional and that the legal statutes they cited to build their argument should have been overruled as such, not affirmed.
The Court’s decision in Jennings v. Rodriguez is an affront to our nation’s commitment to liberty and to U.S. human rights treaty obligations that prohibit arbitrary detention,” said Eleanor Acer of Human Rights First. “How can we as a nation, remain a haven for the prosecuted when we lock up asylum seekers—who are in this country legally to escape violence—for prolonged periods of time without access to an immigration court custody hearing?"
https://www.alternet.org/immigration/right-wing-supreme-court-majority-decides-refugee-asylum-seekers-can-be-jailed
The majority’s ruling in Jennings v. Rodriguez, written by Justice Samuel Alito, reverses and remands a ruling by the California-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which said a non-citizen could not be held for longer than six months without a bail hearing.
ACLU said the Supreme Court’s decision “will impact the lives of thousands of people, including lawful permanent residents, asylum seekers, and survivors of torture. The government’s practice of locking up immigrants indefinitely, without even a hearing to determine if they pose a risk of flight or danger to the community, as they defend their right to remain in the U.S. is horrific,”
In late 2017, federal immigration authorities held approximately 40,000 asylum seekers in various detention centers around the country, Human Rights First reported. As Justice Stephen Breyer dissent noted (which Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor signed), the majority’s conclusion was at odds with the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the British Magna Carta. America's founding documents were based on enshrining the right to preserve liberty and obtain one’s day in court.
“The Fifth Amendment says that ‘no person shall be...deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.’ An alien is a ‘person.’ To hold him without bail is to deprive him of bodily ‘liberty.’ And, where there is no bail proceeding, there has been no bail-related ‘process’ at all. The Due Process Clause—itself reflecting the language of the Magna Carta—prevents arbitrary detention. Indeed, ‘freedom from bodily restraint has always been at the core of the liberty protected by the Due Process Clause from arbitrary governmental action.’” Breyer summed up by saying what the Court’s majority was doing was unconstitutional and that the legal statutes they cited to build their argument should have been overruled as such, not affirmed.
The Court’s decision in Jennings v. Rodriguez is an affront to our nation’s commitment to liberty and to U.S. human rights treaty obligations that prohibit arbitrary detention,” said Eleanor Acer of Human Rights First. “How can we as a nation, remain a haven for the prosecuted when we lock up asylum seekers—who are in this country legally to escape violence—for prolonged periods of time without access to an immigration court custody hearing?"
https://www.alternet.org/immigration/right-wing-supreme-court-majority-decides-refugee-asylum-seekers-can-be-jailed
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