A key plank of President Donald Trump’s program to deport illegal immigrants is expected to reach the nation’s highest court.

The policy in question allows authorities to detain illegal immigrants who have been in the country for years, and do so without releasing them on bond.

Adopted last year, it represented a change from how previous administrations interpreted a specific provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). It also led to a flood of lawsuits from immigrants challenging detention.

The result was a patchwork of enforcement across the country, raising questions about how millions of illegal immigrants would be detained.

In a ruling rejecting Trump’s policy, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit suggested that it “would be the broadest mass detention-without-bond mandate in [the] Nation’s history for millions of noncitizens.”

Trump’s Policy

The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which amended the INA, required detention without bond for illegal immigrants seeking entry into the country.

The provision at issue says individuals seeking admission “shall be detained” if an immigration officer determines they are “not clearly and beyond a doubt entitled to be admitted.”

Under Trump’s second administration, the government said this detention mandate applied to individuals who had already entered the United States.

Multiple illegal immigrants argued that portion of the INA didn’t apply to them because they were already in the country and therefore no longer seeking admission or undergoing a formal admissions process.

Instead, they said another provision of the INA—Section 1226—allowed them to receive bond hearings.

Trump’s interpretation represented a dramatic change in federal policy, David Super, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, previously told The Epoch Times.

The position that illegal immigrants apprehended in the interior of the United States may be held without bond “has not been the policy of any prior administration, including the first Trump administration,” Super said.

The policy is part of the administration’s broader immigration strategy, which includes ending so-called catch-and-release practices, or releasing illegal immigrants as they await hearings after being apprehended at the border.

The administration stated that by last month, it had achieved a full year of zero releases at the border.

Attorneys previously told The Epoch Times the policy bolstered immigration enforcement. If detainees are released, the government has to hope people will appear for their immigration proceedings.

Keeping individuals detained gives the government “all the leverage,” making it easier to convince detainees to self-deport instead of waiting months or longer for an immigration hearing they’ll probably lose, former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told The Epoch Times.

Conflicting Court Rulings

Several judges and groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union have been critical of the policy, alleging that it misinterpreted the law and deprived illegal immigrants of their right to due process.

“The government cannot mandatorily detain millions of noncitizens, many of whom have lived here for decades, without an opportunity to seek release,” Amy Belsher, director of immigrant rights litigation at the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a press release.

“It defies the Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and basic human decency.”

Belsher was responding to the Second Circuit’s decision, which was one of three rejecting the administration’s interpretation. Two federal appeals courts have upheld it, leading to conflicting policies for different regions of the country.

Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota are subject to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, which ruled in Trump’s favor in March.

Rahmani said the detention issue “affects hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people.”

“You can’t have one district or one circuit handling detainees one way and another handling it a completely different way,” he told The Epoch Times. “It doesn’t make any legal or logical sense. So the Supreme Court should do its job. They should step in.”

— Matthew Vadum; Sam Dorman; Stacy Robinson

BOOKMARKS

Venezuela is pumping more crude oil while Iran’s output is plummeting, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said in a new report released on June 11. OPEC also reported that Iranian output fell by 19 percent in May.

GOP Reps. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) and Ben Cline (R-Va.) have introduced legislation to bar employees of companies linked to China’s military from entering the United States. “Through its policy of civil-military fusion, [China] has enlisted dozens of companies, and their subsidiaries,” in its goal of having the world’s strongest military force by 2050, Moolenar said.

The Trump Savings Accounts are soon to be extended to kids in foster care, the Trump administration announced on June 11. “For the first time, children in foster care will have access to a dedicated savings and investment vehicle: Fostering the Future Accounts,” First Lady Melania Trump said.

Vance Luther Boelter has pleaded guilty to killing former Minnesota House speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, at their home last year. Boelter pleaded guilty to all counts, which include two stalking charges, two murders through use of a firearm, and two federal firearm-shooting offenses.

Trump says he will nominate Jay Clayton, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to be his director of national intelligence. “I think that he has a great reputation as being an incredibly competent manager—so much so that ... the Southern District judges put him in, even when he couldn’t get past the blue slip process,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said on Thursday.

—Stacy Robinson