Court takes up detention case

The Supreme Court said Thursday it will consider whether immigrants subject to deportation can be held in detention indefinitely while their cases are adjudicated.

Trump's hard-line immigration policy at stake

The eventual ruling could endorse or end a key feature of President Donald Trump's hard-line immigration crackdown.

The central question: bond hearings

The focus is whether immigrants should have a chance to argue at a bond hearing that they can be released while the deportation process moves forward, which was standard practice under previous presidents.

The case of Ricardo Aparecido Barbosa da Cunha

The justices will hear a Trump administration appeal in the case of Ricardo Aparecido Barbosa da Cunha, a man from Brazil who originally entered the United States in the mid-two thousands.

Detained after traffic stop, then released

He was detained following a traffic stop in Norwood, Massachusetts, in September twenty twenty-five. He sued, and a federal district judge ordered his release. The New York-based second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision.

Trump administration expands detention authority

Since last summer, the Trump administration has sought to apply federal law to anyone deemed to have entered the United States illegally, even if they are nowhere near the border and have lived in the country for years.

ACLU: policy is cruel and unlawful

Michael Tan, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, said the government cannot detain immigrants for months or years without a bond hearing. Try as it might, the government cannot twist the law to detain immigrants for months or even years on end without a bond hearing. Not only is it cruel and inhumane; it is unlawful.

“Try as it might, the government cannot twist the law to detain immigrants for months or even years on end without a bond hearing. Not only is it cruel and inhumane; it is unlawful.”

Trump administration defends the policy

Solicitor General D. John Sauer, representing the Trump administration, called the issue a critically important question of immigration law. The policy removes a perverse incentive whereby people who evade detention at entry get treated more leniently than those detained at the border.

Thousands already detained, millions could be affected

Thousands of people have already been detained under the policy, which could apply to millions of immigrants if expanded. Many of them have contested it. Rulings in all three cases are due by the end of June.