The Supreme Court announced it would take up a case deciding whether the federal government can hold criminal immigrants in detention indefinitely pending removal, adding to the immigration cases the high court has heard in recent years.
The high court said Monday that it would hear the case Genalo v. Black, part of an orders list that included three cases accepted for arguments in the upcoming term and dozens of cases that the Supreme Court declined to take up. The Justice Department urged the high court to hear the case by looking at whether federal immigration officials may detain a criminal immigrant who is awaiting the conclusion of removal proceedings, indefinitely or if he or she should be given a bond hearing if the detention becomes “unreasonably prolonged.” The DOJ also asked the Supreme Court to address, if that bond hearing is necessary, whether the federal government holds the burden for proving why the illegal immigrant must remain in detention with “clear and convincing evidence.”
The case deals with two criminal legal permanent residents, Carol Black and Keisy G.M., whom the government sought to remove from the country, citing their respective criminal convictions, and placed in detention pending removal proceedings before an immigration court. Both Black and G.M. filed habeas corpus petitions in federal court challenging the legality of their continued detention over its length, with their cases being combined at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. The federal appeals court sided with the criminal immigrants, finding that the due process clause of the Constitution requires that a bond hearing be given if a detention becomes “unreasonably prolonged,” also holding that the government holds the burden for justifying the immigrants’ continued detention.
