A hearing at the Supreme Court last week is the latest in a debate on whether to grant bond to immigrants being held for deportation indefinitely. Biden administration lawyers urged the Supreme Court to overturn rulings in California and Pennsylvania guaranteeing bond hearings to immigrants whose claims take extensive time for resolution. Those courts ruled that immigrants deserve a bond hearing if they are being held for more than six months. But Supreme Court justices are in disagreement with the Justice Department lawyers, claiming Constitutional grants of due process warrant bond hearings for this category of detainees. The Supreme Court cited a 20-year-old opinion by Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who then said the Constitution doesn’t allow for a person to be held in jail without a hearing, and that the same therefore applies to immigrants in detention. It’s a dilemma facilitated by adjudicators unable to decide whether to follow strict immigration law or the Constitution’s eighth amendment. A number of advocacy groups have backed the Supreme Court in this ongoing debate, including the American Civil Liberties Union, which said the Biden administration “is on the wrong side in this crucial immigration case.” This is the third time in recent years that the Supreme Court has tried to resolve the conflict between the federal push to hold immigrants and those detainees and advocates fighting for trials.
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