The Trump administration was dealt another blow in federal court Tuesday with regard to its practice of rounding up and detaining undocumented immigrants who have, in some cases, lived and worked in the US for years.
A three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has upheld a lower court ruling in case brought on behalf of a noncitizen from Brazil, Ricardo Aparecido Barbosa da Cunha, who came to the US 21 years ago and applied for asylum in 2016. The judge writing for the the panel, Judge Joseph F. Bianco, in a unanimous decision, is a Trump appointee hand-picked by the Federalist Society who counts himself a strict texualist when it comes to constitutional law.
The 61-page decision reads like a full-throated rebuke of the adminstration's aggressive detention policies, saying that their argument to hold Mr. Barbosa da Cunha without a bond hearing is an "attempt to muddy these textually clear waters," and defies "longstanding executive branch practice."
"Even if the government’s newfound interpretation of Section 1225(b)(2)(A) were plausible — and it is not — we would nonetheless reject it based on our obligation to construe these statutes in a manner that would avoid the serious constitutional questions attendant to what would be the broadest mass detention-without-bond mandate in our Nation’s history for millions of noncitizens," Bianco writes.
The statute that the court refers to is one that pertains to newly arrived immigrants who are "seeking admission" to the country, which justifies mandatory detention — the government argues, without a bond hearing, indefinitely, regardless of whether the person represents a flight risk.
"Today, although we part ways with two other circuits that have addressed this question, we join the overwhelming majority of federal judges across the Nation to consider it and conclude that the government’s novel interpretation of the immigration statutes defies their plain text," Bianco writes.
And Bianco notes that the court, in this decision, is ruling solely based on the text of this one statute, and isn't addressing the larger constitutional questions about due process, etc.
A case arguing the due process issue with regard to these immigrant detentions is being argued before the (batshit insane) Fifth Circuit on Wednesday, as the New York Times notes. The Fifth Circuit in New Orleans, along with the Eighth Circuit (which covers a broad swath of the country's middle), have both recently ruled in the administration's favor with regard to immigrant detentions, even with regard to this same statute Section 1225.
The split between the appeals courts means that the Supreme Court is likely to weigh in on this issue before long.
Previously: Who Was the San Francisco Man Who Sued the US Government 131 Years Ago Over Birthright Citizenship?
Top image: Photo via Getty Images
