Case preview

Supreme Court to hear oral arguments in two related immigration cases on Tuesday, Johnson v Artjaga-Martinez and Garland v. Aleman GonzalezIn both cases, deported non-citizens are challenging their prolonged detention — sometimes months or even years — without the guarantees of a bail hearing before an immigration judge. During such hearings, an immigration judge decides whether a noncitizen is entitled to release in exchange for bail, and if so, how much. Getting bail doesn’t necessarily mean a noncitizen can avoid deportation; it simply allows the person to be released under federal supervision pending resolution of their potential immigration case. Gonzalez Another question was raised about whether district courts have the authority to issue class injunctive relief in class actions brought by detained non-citizens.

Mexican citizen Antonio Arteaga-Martinez has repeatedly entered the United States without authorization. After one such entry, the U.S. government deported him to Mexico. The last time he re-entered was sometime after 2012. In Mexico, a criminal gang targeted him and his family. He was beaten and robbed; his car was violently stolen. In search of safety, he returned to the United States. In 2018, immigration authorities arrested him. The government reinstated his previous deportation order. While in custody, Arteaga-Martinez expressed fear of returning to Mexico, with an asylum officer concluding that he had a “reasonable fear” of future persecution and torture there. He remains in custody until his claims for protection are resolved. Such claims can take years to adjudicate. Four months later, Arteaga-Martinez challenged his detention with a habeas corpus.

Gonzalez Consolidated two class actions on behalf of non-citizens in a similar situation to Arteaga-Martinez. While the Supreme Court has never set clear criteria for when a detainee is entitled to a bail hearing, both the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit and the Ninth Circuit have concluded that a bail hearing before an immigration judge is required after six months Yes, the government bears the burden of proving that non-citizens are in danger or at risk of flight. The Supreme Court will now review those decisions.

A complex statutory program defines the government’s powers to detain non-citizens and the conditions of detention. When a non-citizen is ordered to be deported, a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 USC § 1231, which requires a 90-day “withdrawal period” after the order becomes an “administrative” final order. The INA allows for a deportation period of more than 90 days for certain unacceptable non-citizens or persons who “have been determined by the Attorney General to pose a risk to the community or unlikely to comply with a deportation order.” those non-citizens”possible Detained beyond the expulsion period” (emphasis added).

The Supreme Court has previously held that post-eviction statutes contain implicit time limits.exist zadvidas v davis, a 2001 ruling, read by the court, barred non-citizens ordered to be deported from being detained for more than six months if the deportation was not “reasonably foreseeable”. This happens, for example, when non-citizens are stateless (as in the case of Zadvydas himself) and no country would accept them.

The court adopted this interpretation in order to avoid constitutional problems. It begins by establishing that the word “may” makes post-removal statutes ambiguous about the scope of permissible detention. When statutory language is ambiguous, “constitutional circumvention norm” supports interpretations that avoid serious constitutional problems. The court reasoned that, given an individual’s constitutionally protected interest in avoiding physical restraint, the due process clause requires the government to provide “special grounds” for prolonged civil detention, such as danger or flight risk. When deportation cannot be reasonably foreseen, the main reason for post-order detention – preventing non-citizens from absconding – disappears.

As a result, the court zadvidas By a vote of 5 to 4, Congress authorized only a presumed reasonable six months of detention for non-citizens whose removal could not be reasonably foreseen. After that, the government should release non-citizens under some form of supervision. Even for non-citizens whose deportation is reasonably foreseeable, courts consider some assessment of the danger or flight risk of detention for more than six months.

Federal regulations for two groups of non-citizens – those who are deported reasonably foreseeable and those who were removed no – Provides custody review by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but non-citizens do not have any right to a hearing, let alone before an impartial immigration judge.

The case now brought to court involves non-citizens who had their removal orders reinstated, who then claimed to be demanding a form of humanitarian protection known as “deferred action.” Deferred action is like asylum, protecting non-citizens from being sent to a country where they may face persecution or torture based on characteristics such as race or religion. But adjudication on those claims could take years. Does the statute authorize prolonged detention without an immigration judge holding a bail hearing?

government debate First, the plain text of the post-removal statute does not support the “bail hearing system” sought by detainees.rather than from zadvidas, The government requested a new interpretation of the statute. The administration has argued that when Congress wants to require immigration judges to hold bond hearings, it explicitly does so. Importing the requirement into the text rewrites the legal language rather than interpreting it. The government further argues that the detainee’s interpretation violates two recent Supreme Court rulings, Jennings v.Rodriguez and Johnson v. Guzman Chavez. exist Rodriguez, the court rejected a similar effort to introduce a bond hearing requirement into a different provision of the INA to avoid violating due process. Guzman Chavez The issue of bail hearings under the post-removal statutes was not directly raised, but the court dictated that they could not.

Rather, reinterpreting post-demolition regulations, Arteaga-Martinez debate The court shall apply its previous interpretation of the exact same statutory language.like the petitioner zadvidas, he argued that his removal was not “reasonably foreseeable” because his request for a stay of removal could take years to adjudicate and may ultimately not be removed at all. Therefore, the government has no right to continue to detain him for more than six months.even his dismissal Yes considered “reasonably foreseeable”, he read zadvidas Ask the government to specifically assess his danger or flight risk in a “neutral bond hearing.”

This Gonzalez detainee debate Post-removal statutes are vague about the procedures needed to justify prolonged detention. They argued that this could be interpreted as requiring a bond hearing, which the court must adopt to avoid a violation of due process. Without the guarantee of a bail hearing before an immigration judge, non-citizens who pose neither a danger nor a flight risk could spend years in immigration prison before finally winning humanitarian protection.This Gonzalez The detainees argued that when the USCIS requested a custody review elsewhere, it was referring to a bail hearing before an immigration judge. Here, by contrast, detainees argue that ICE is both a jailer and a judge, leading to a superficial, biased review of their detention.

Central to resolving these cases is how the court handles unconstitutional conduct and whether it believes it zadvidas related. The government denounced the lack of a clear statutory text mentioning “a six-month deadline, a bond hearing or an immigration judge”, but zadvidas itself reads the six-month deadline into the same statutory provisions. Arteaga-Martinez’s main argument hinges on whether the court decides that the possibility of a future stay of removal would result in removal not being “reasonably foreseeable.”If the court disagrees, he and Gonzalez The detainee must convince the judge that the ICE guardianship review system does not comply with post-removal regulations.

Arteaga-Martinez and Gonzalez Detainees face headwinds as courts have recent Reducing the use of constitutional circumvention standards to provide procedural protections to detained non-citizens that the court’s core textualists may hesitate to step up zadvidas Or find ambiguity in the procedural requirements of the post-removal statute. A key issue will be the sensitivity of the courts to the constitutional interests involved. Not all judges consider the improper choices faced by non-citizens — persecution or torture in their home country on the one hand, and prolonged incarceration in U.S. prisons on the other — as issues of any kind.In fact, Justice Samuel Alito recently suggestion Asylum seekers can avoid detention simply by flying back to the persecuted country.

Gonzalez Asked additional questions 8 USC § 1252(f)(1) District courts are prohibited from granting class injunctions. The clause prohibits courts from prohibiting or restricting ” [specified provisions] …except to apply such provisions to individual aliens who have sued under this section. ” government debate The clause prohibits the full class of injunctive relief because the injunction “limits the operation of the covered INA terms” and the full class of relief extends beyond individual noncitizens.However, detainees debate They only seek to prevent the government from taking action based on a misinterpretation of the post-relocation statute (hence, no statutory mandate), not to stop the “working” of the clause altogether. The court’s decision on this important issue has the potential to affect immigrant rights litigation for years to come.