The United States has decided to impose prison sentences on illegal immigrants

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether illegal immigrants held indefinitely are eligible for bail after six months in prison – or whether they should be released.

In many cases, immigrants are detained for years, sometimes more than two decades, waiting for the verdict of their cases. Immigration judges say this is due to the backlog of cases and the shortage of judges. Prisons in this situation typically have between 20,000 and 27,000 immigrants, according to the Transaction Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).

The case will be decided in two class proceedings (Garland v. Gonzalez e Johnson v. Artica-Martinez) The National Public Radio (NPR) reported that the judges were divided over oral arguments and discussions related to the case during the Supreme Court hearing on Tuesday (1/11).

The Biden administration’s judiciary maintains the position taken under the Trump administration that federal law does not provide a deadline for immigration judges to hold a bail hearing for immigrants to respond to the independent process.

Felipe Alexandre, a Brazilian lawyer who is a corporate partner of New York’s AG Immigration, said in 2001, the Supreme Court ruled that an immigrant could not be detained for more than six years under a possible deportation order.

At the oral hearing, (Liberal) Minister Sonia Sodomier cited the 2001 precedent: “In a similar case, the court ruled that a person could not be imprisoned indefinitely, without cause, for that reason, I think you would agree, it could not be just an option.

In that judgment, the Supreme Court established that the government must present a “special justification” to extend custody or that it would contradict the proper procedural rule of the Constitution.

Judicial attorney Austin Rainer argued that detention was not “indefinite” because detained immigrants could be deported or allowed to stay in the country at any time. He said federal officials would conduct a rigorous internal review to determine if they should remain in jail pending an investigation.

(Conservative) Minister Brett Kavanaugh said the government would allow immigrants to be kept in such detention centers if they believed they would be deported in the “fair future.” But he added: “I think the situation will be confusing if we do not decide on something specific.”

Time magazine reports that the Supreme Court will decide whether to file detained immigrant class proceedings – or whether the proceedings should be private. In 2020, a federal court in California ruled in favor of immigrants. But the judiciary now says the courts do not have the power to recognize class action cases by illegal immigrants because the rights under the law apply only to “individual immigrants”.