A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot detain immigrants for more than 90 days without an opportunity to seek release on bond.
In a 2-1 decision, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided against the administration, potentially affecting thousands of immigrants detained by ICE in states within the court's jurisdiction, including Texas and Louisiana.
Judge Leslie Southwick wrote for the majority, citing a 2001 Supreme Court finding that the due process clause protects everyone, including two Mexican citizens and one Honduran whose cases were at issue, and added, "It is part of the historic majesty of this long-ago founding charter that it makes no exceptions in providing basic rights to those within our boundaries, including a right to be heard when personal liberty is taken." Southwick was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush.
In dissent, Judge Cory Wilson said the majority "marginalizes the Constitution's express grant of plenary authority over immigration matters to Congress." Wilson is a Trump appointee.
A different panel of the same court had previously been the first in the country to side with the administration's novel interpretation of federal immigration law allowing mandatory detention of non-citizens living in the U.S., but that February ruling did not address whether the Fifth Amendment's due process protections require bond hearings.
Rebecca Cassler, a lawyer for the migrants at the American Immigration Council, said the group is "delighted that the panel recognized the core constitutional principle that the due process clause does not allow the government to lock them away indefinitely."
The Department of Homeland Security said it disagrees with the ruling and is "confident in its legal position regarding mandatory detention," and the administration last week asked the Supreme Court to review a similar ruling by a different appeals court.
The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard the case. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment. The detentions challenged in the case were part of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.