Supreme Court to hear dispute over Trump's mandatory detention policy

Washington — The Supreme Court on Thursday said it will consider whether the Trump administration can detain tens of thousands of immigrants indefinitely during their removal proceedings without access to bond hearings.

At the center of the case is the administration's mandatory detention policy, which targets all immigrants in the United States illegally, including those who have lived in the country for years. The question of whether the policy is lawful has divided federal appeals courts, though hundreds of district judges have rejected it. Two U.S. appeals courts have allowed noncitizens to be subject to mandatory detention without bond, but nine others have ruled the Trump administration must provide certain immigrants with bond hearings or release them for the duration of their deportation proceedings.

In the past, immigrants who had lived in the U.S. illegally for many years were eligible for bond hearings, where they could try to convince an immigration judge that they were not flight risks and could remain freed during their deportation cases. But last year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement tightened its detention rules and said detainees at risk of deportation were not eligible to be released on bond if they were in the U.S. illegally. Immigration authorities can, however, release them on parole for humanitarian or public-interest reasons.

The agency previously said only certain immigrants, such as those convicted of certain crimes or who had more recently crossed into the U.S. illegally, were not eligible for bond hearings.

As a result of the Trump administration's mandatory detention policy, scores of people who entered the U.S. illegally years ago, including those without criminal records, have been held by immigration authorities indefinitely.

Thousands of cases challenging those mandatory detentions have been brought in courts across the country, straining federal prosecutors who have had to shift their attention away from criminal and other civil cases. Lower court decisions have broad impacts on those challenges.

The mandatory detention policy is part of President Trump's broader crackdown on immigration. In the president's second administration, immigration authorities have arrested thousands of immigrants without criminal records and who only face civil immigration violations.

In July, ICE detained more than 46,000 people for removal because of alleged immigration offenses, surpassing the 43,000 detentions by immigration authorities in June.

ICE has launched operations in major cities targeting people who are in the country illegally, sometimes leading to violent and deadly clashes between immigration authorities and protesters. 

ICE wasted millions in taxpayer dollars in rush to expand detention capacity, watchdog says