US appeals court rules ICE must provide bond hearings after 90 days; Trump administration seeks Supreme Court review

Lead

A divided US appeals court ruled on Thursday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cannot hold people for more than 90 days under the Trump administration's mass detention policy without giving them a chance to seek release on bond. The decision, issued by a 2-1 panel of the New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, could affect thousands of individuals detained in states within its jurisdiction, including Texas and Louisiana.

Separately, the Trump administration on Friday asked the US Supreme Court to let it detain people arrested in its immigration crackdown without a chance to seek bond, even if they have lived in the country for years. The administration made that request in a filing made public on Friday, asking the court to overturn a May decision by a federal appeals court that rejected its reinterpretation of a decades-old immigration law that now underlies its mass detention policy.

Coverage Comparison

The Jerusalem Post and The Hindu both reported the 5th Circuit ruling, highlighting that the decision could affect thousands of individuals in states within its jurisdiction, including Texas and Louisiana. Both outlets noted the dissenting opinion by US Circuit Judge Cory Wilson, a Trump appointee, who argued that the majority marginalized the Constitution's grant of plenary authority over immigration matters to Congress.

The Guardian focused on the Supreme Court request, reporting that the administration is asking the justices to review a ruling by a 2-1 panel of the Cincinnati-based sixth US circuit court of appeals. The Guardian also reported that two other appeals courts have endorsed the administration's policy, and that US Solicitor General D John Sauer urged the court to intervene and resolve a 'critically important question of immigration law'.

Neither the Jerusalem Post nor The Hindu mentioned the Supreme Court filing, while The Guardian's account did not include the 5th Circuit's ruling. The two reports complement each other by covering different aspects of the ongoing legal dispute.

Key Claims

• US Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot detain people for more than 90 days under the Trump administration's mass detention policy without providing them a chance to be released on bond, as ruled by a divided US appeals court on Thursday.
• The ruling by a 2-1 panel of the New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals could affect thousands of individuals who have been detained in states within its jurisdiction, including Texas and Louisiana.
• US Circuit Judge Leslie Southwick, writing for the majority, said the US Supreme Court made clear in 2001 that the due process clause protects everyone, including the two Mexican citizens and one Honduran whose cases were before the 5th Circuit.
• US Circuit Judge Cory Wilson, a Trump appointee, dissented, saying 'the majority marginalizes the Constitution's express grant of plenary authority over immigration matters to Congress'.
• The Trump administration asked the US Supreme Court to let it detain people arrested in its immigration crackdown without a chance to seek bond, a request made in a filing made public on Friday.
• Two other appeals courts have endorsed the administration's policy, and US Solicitor General D John Sauer noted that the justices should intervene and resolve a 'critically important question of immigration law'.

Background

The 5th Circuit's ruling stems from an earlier decision in February, when a different panel of the same court had been the first in the nation to endorse the Trump administration's novel interpretation of a federal immigration statute as allowing mandatory detention of non-citizens living in the United States. That ruling did not address whether the due process protections of the US Constitution's Fifth Amendment require those same migrants to be given a chance to seek release by appearing before an immigration judge for a bond hearing.

In Thursday's opinion, Judge Southwick, who was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, wrote that 'it is part of the historic majesty of this long-ago founding charter that it makes no exceptions in providing basic rights to those within our boundaries, including a right to be heard when personal liberty is taken.'

The administration's Supreme Court filing concerns a different case from the 6th Circuit. The administration filed the appeal earlier this week, and the Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority has already handed it major wins on immigration policy, including allowing it to strip hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants of protections against deportation.

In the petition, Solicitor General Sauer argued that 'detaining aliens who are living in the country after an illegal entry while their removal proceedings unfold prevents those aliens from evading hearings and helps ensure their removal from the United States.'

The dispute centers on a policy change by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which last year took the position that non-citizens already residing in the United States, and not just people arriving at the border, qualify as 'applicants for admission' subject to mandatory detention under federal immigration law.