Fifth Circuit Rules 10-7 That Detained Migrants Have No Constitutional Right to Bond Hearings
The New Orleans-based appeals court ruled that the Fifth Amendment does not require bond hearings for detained immigrants, a decision that removes a release path for detainees in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi while the Supreme Court weighs a related question.
A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the US Constitution does not require the Trump administration to give detained immigrants a chance to seek release on bond. The New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 10-7 that the Fifth Amendment’s due process protections do not require bond hearings for immigration detainees.
Judge Cory Wilson, an appointee of President Donald Trump, wrote that detainees seeking to vindicate a liberty interest in freedom from physical restraint “can do so at any moment by agreeing to leave the country.” The ruling, if it stands, removes a path for detained migrants in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, the three states under the court’s jurisdiction, to argue for release, Reuters reported.
How the court reversed course
The court in February adopted the administration’s reading of immigration law as requiring mandatory detention. A three-judge panel ruled in July that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement could not constitutionally detain people for more than 90 days without hearings to argue for release on bond. The full court agreed to rehear the case and on Friday reversed that panel ruling, concluding that detained immigrants are not constitutionally entitled to proceedings in immigration court beyond what Congress provided by statute.
The case came in lawsuits by two Mexican citizens and one Honduran. Texas and Louisiana house the largest numbers of immigration detainees in the country, Reuters reported, which gives the ruling added weight in those states.
What happens next
The Supreme Court agreed this month to consider the issue, which has divided lower courts, but it is considering only whether such hearings are required by statute, not by the Constitution, the question the 5th Circuit answered Friday. Numerous lawsuits by migrants arguing they were unlawfully detained have filled the courts as ICE carried out Trump’s mass deportation agenda, Reuters reported.
Reaction split along the lines of the case. Ellie Norton, a lawyer for the non-US citizens in the case at the National Immigration Project, said in a statement: “This ruling opens the door to more people being locked up for no reason, with devastating consequences for them, their loved ones and their community.” James Percival, general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, called the decision a “big win in the 5th Circuit on mandatory detention for illegal aliens” in a social media post.
Judge Dana Douglas, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, dissented, writing that “unchecked, executive authority to arrest and detain, indefinitely, echoes fearfully from history.”
Reporting based on coverage by Reuters.
