Immigrants who entered the country illegally don’t have a right to seek bond while they’re in custody and going through deportation proceedings, even if they’ve set roots in the U.S., a federal appeals court ruled Friday.
In a 10-7 ruling, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that current immigration laws allow the federal government to hold detained immigrants until they’re deported — regardless of whether they have made a life in the U.S. and lack a criminal history.
Trump-appointed Judge Cory Wilson wrote in the court’s ruling that if undocumented immigrants have not been legally admitted to the U.S., they are only entitled to whatever rights Congress has spelled out in immigration laws. He added that if undocumented immigrants in custody want to be free from detention, “they can do so at any moment by agreeing to leave the country.”
In its brief, The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) showed that, to make out a due process claim, one must be deprived of what courts call a “fundamental liberty interest.” But aliens the law says have no right to be in the country at all have no fundamental liberty interest in moving about the country freely. Nor do they have a fundamental liberty interest in being released into the United States, as opposed to their home country.
Also, FAIR pointed out that detained aliens may leave detention at any time, merely by ceasing to contest their removal and going back to their home country. Since they are not detained against their will, they are not deprived of any due process right to release.
The Fifth Circuit agreed with FAIR. It held that, because plaintiffs could leave detention at any time, no right of theirs to be free of physical restraint was violated, and that the Constitution protects no fundamental right to freedom from physical restraint in the United States, as opposed to elsewhere.
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