Judges nix Trump's mandatory immigrant detention policy, teeing up Supreme Court fight

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Set us as preferred The U.S.9th Circuit Court of Appeals dealt another blow to the Trump administration’s mass deportation project Thursday, ruling alongside the 7th Circuit that most immigrants cannot be held without bond while fighting to remain in the U.S.

The rulings will apply to jurisdictions that stretch across much of the southern border, affecting states where large numbers of immigrant detainees are held in federal custody.Unless immigrants are caught while crossing the border or soon after, they will now be entitled to a bond hearing, where a judge will decide whether there is enough evidence to justify their indefinite detention.The twin decisions come little more than a year after the Department of Homeland Security ordered “mandatory detention” for all immigrants picked up by its agents — a policy that had previously only applied to those caught at the border.The policy shift sowed chaos in federal courts, as thousands of immigrants began suing for bond hearings that had long been automatic.

California’s district judges were overrun with emergency petitions for writs of habeas corpus, a legal maneuver rarely used outside death row appeals.“Versions of this case have played out in federal courts across the country,” Judge Daniel A.

Bress wrote for the 9th Circuit on Thursday.“The vast majority of the district courts to confront the issue have concluded that [mandatory detention] is limited to the border.” Those district court battles have grown increasingly heated as caseloads have swelled.

This spring, Eastern District of California Chief Judge Troy Nunley took the rare step of sanctioning a government lawyer over failing to tell the court if and when a man he’d ordered released had actually gone free.California A legal maneuver once reserved for death row inmates and suspected terrorists ...