An appeals court on Thursday ruled that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot detain immigrants for more than 90 days without giving them an opportunity to seek release on bond while their deportation proceedings are pending.
In a 2-1 ruling, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided against the administration, potentially affecting thousands of immigrants who have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in states within the court ‘s jurisdiction, including Texas and Louisiana.
Judge Leslie Southwick, writing for the majority, said the U.S. Supreme Court found in 2001 that the due process clause protects everyone, including two Mexican citizens and one Honduran whose cases were at issue in this case.
“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,” Southwick wrote.
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In a dissenting opinion, Judge Cory Wilson said the majority “marginalizes the Constitution’s express grant of plenary authority over immigration matters to Congress.”
A different panel of the same court had previously been the first in the country to side with the administration’s novel interpretation of a federal immigration statute allowing mandatory detention of non-citizens living in the U.S.
However, that ruling in February did not address whether the due process protections of the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment require giving the immigrants an opportunity to seek release on bond by appearing before an immigration judge.
Rebecca Cassler, a lawyer for the migrants at the American Immigration Council, said in a statement to Reuters that the group is “delighted that the panel recognized the core constitutional principle that the due process clause does not allow the government to lock them away indefinitely.”
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to the outlet that it disagrees with the ruling, adding that it is “confident in its legal position regarding mandatory detention.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the department for comment.
Last week, the administration had asked the Supreme Court to review a similar ruling by a different appeals court.
Federal immigration law states that “applicants for admission” to the country are subject to mandatory detention while their cases proceed in immigration courts, making them ineligible for bond hearings.
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Despite a long-standing interpretation of immigration law, the Department of Homeland Security claimed last year that non-citizens who are already in the U.S. qualify as “applicants for admission” subject to mandatory detention, rather than only people arriving at the border.
The Board of Immigration Appeals, which is part of the Justice Department, announced in September that it had adopted the Department of Homeland Security’s interpretation.
Immigration judges employed by the department began ordering mandatory detention across the country.
Reuters contributed to this report.
