Immigrants Must Be Given Bail Hearing after Six Months
Immigrants Must Be Given Bail Hearing after Six Months
The U.S. government's practice of indefinitely holding deportable immigrants in jail without giving them a chance to argue for release on bail was given the red light when a federal court issued a preliminary injunction against the practice on May 27, 2014.
The case was brought as a class action by Mark Anthony Reid, who came to the United States in 1978 as a lawful permanent resident. In 2010, Reid was sentenced to five years in prison for unspecified non-violent crimes. In 2012, after serving two years of his sentence, Reid was transferred to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
ICE detained Reid under 8 U.S.C. B 1226(c) — a statute that mandates detention for certain convicted aliens and does not provide them an opportunity for a bail hearing.
After being in ICE's custody for over six months, Reid filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal district court in Massachusetts in which he asserted he was being held without bail in violation of his constitutional rights. The court granted Reid's petition, holding that 8 1226(c) must be read to include a "reasonableness" limit to comport with due process. The limit, said the court, was six months.
Reid then filed suit in the same court to stop the ICE's blanket process of indefinite detention without a bail hearing. The case was later certified as a class action to represent all current and future immigrants held for deportation in the state of Massachusetts under 8 U.S.C. B 1226(c).
After analyzing the law and the facts of the case, U.S. District Judge Michael Ponsor issued a declaratory judgment holding that any current or future class member who is held for deportation must be given an individualized bail hearing after being detained for a period of six months.
Ponsor also ordered the government to "immediately cease and desist" holding immigrants longer than six months without a bail hearing, and to timely determine the custody of every class member by providing a bond hearing before an Immigration Judge.
Michael Tan, a staff attorney with the ACLU's Immigrant Rights Project, writes that this ruling "puts the brakes on one of the most draconian and unforgiving aspects of our immigration enforcement system."
The plaintiffs were represented by the ACLU of Massachusetts, the Workers and Immigrants’ Rights Advocacy Clinic of the Yale Law School, and WilmerHale. See: Reid v. Donelan, 22 F. Supp. 3d 84 (D. Mass. 2014).
Related legal case
Reid v. Donelan
| Year | 2014 |
|---|---|
| Cite | 22 F. Supp. 3d 84 (D. Mass. 2014) |
| Level | District Court |
| District Court Edition | F.Supp.3d |