Supreme Court to Decide Case That Opens Door for Government to Potentially Detain Immigrants Indefinitely – By Colin Kalmbacher (Law and Crime) / Aug 23 2021
The Supreme Court of the United States on Monday added a high-profile case to next term’s docket that could have major implications for how immigration law is allowed to be litigated in the first place.
At least four justices signed off on granting the writ of certiorari in the case stylized as Garland v. Aleman Gonzalez, a controversy that was initially brought before the nation’s high court by former President Donald Trump’s then-Attorney General Bill Barr in September 2020.
Esteban Aleman Gonzalez and Jose Eduardo Gutierrez Sanchez are Mexican nationals who were previously deported. They both reentered the country and their previous removal orders were reinstated. During an interview with immigration officials, they were found to have a reasonable fear of persecution based on protected grounds or torture and subsequently detained under 8 U.S.C. §1231.
They both requested bond hearings but immigration judges denied those requests so the two immigrants sued in the Northern District of California and won at the district and appellate levels. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s order which granted an injunction prohibiting the government from detaining Aleman Gonzalez and Gutierrez Sanchez as well as a class of similarly situated immigrants for more than 180 days without providing a bond hearing before an immigration judge under 8 U.S.C. §1231(a)(6).
