WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court announced it will hear arguments in a lawsuit over the Trump administration’s practice of indefinitely detaining migrants who allegedly crossed the border illegally.
In the past, accused illegal immigrants were often granted a hearing before a judge about their detention, but President Trump had been keen on ending so-called “catch and release” practices due to concerns that the migrants won’t show up to court.
The lower courts have splintered over whether the Trump administration’s policy on mandatory detentions violates federal law.
Now a key aspect of Trump’s immigration agenda will be in the Supreme Court’s crosshairs.
The decision to grant certiorari comes after the high court agreed this week to take up another case involving deportations.
The Supreme Court allowed the administration to continue deportations to third countries, nations that are not the illegal immigrants’ place of origin.
The indefinite detention case revolves around Brazilian citizen Ricardo Aparecido Barbosa da Cunha, who officials alleged entered the country illegally some two decades ago and has since sought asylum.
His attorneys have noted that he was never charged with a crime.
An immigration judge concluded he needed to be kept in detention, despite his push for a bond hearing.
An estimated 70,000 migrants are currently being holed up in immigration detention facilities, according to data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Supreme Court is set to kick off its new term on Monday. A date for oral arguments in the case on indefinite detention, Rhoney, Acting Dir. v. Barbosa Da Cunha, Ricardo A., has not yet been scheduled.
US Solicitor General John Sauer has argued that indefinitely holding illegal immigrants residing in the country “prevents those aliens from evading hearings and helps ensure their removal from the United States.”
Immigrant rights groups have argued that under federal law, noncitizens are also afforded the right to have a bond hearing and that the policy has undermined that.
Trump faced a mixed bag on immigration cases before the Supreme Court last term, famously losing the birthright citizenship case, but prevailing on others, such as his attempt to yank temporary protected status (TPS) for thousands of Syrian and Haitian migrants.
Still, his losses before the high court have seemingly put a bad taste in Trump’s mouth, even toward some of his handpicked justices.
“They voted against me too often. I was very—I gave them the position of a lifetime, and they vote against me often,” Trump vented to TIME magazine in a recent interview, when asked if he regrets some of his appointments. “The Democrats stick like glue—those three, they virtually never vary.”
“It’s unfortunate what they did.”
