The Supreme Court will hear arguments today in two cases about whether immigrants detained for more than six months have a right to a release hearing.
Stephen Yale-Loehr, professor of immigration law at Cornell Law School and co-author of a leading 21-volume immigration law series, says the decision will impact thousands of immigrants who are detained.
Yale-Loehr says: “The cases are important, in part because of the large backlog in immigration courts. Over 1.5 million immigrants have cases pending in immigration court. It can take years to get a decision. If immigrants must be detained that entire time, the monetary and social costs will be immense.”
“Two lower courts held that in certain cases immigrants have a right to a hearing after six months of detention. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority may disagree.”
“In one of the cases, Antonio Arteaga-Martinez argues that to avoid a due process violation, he and certain other immigrants should have a right to a bond hearing after six months in detention. Last year, however, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that immigrants who return to the United States illegally after being deported must be held without bond while they await a second deportation hearing.”
