In Major Setback for Due Process, Fifth Circuit Ruling Denies Immigrants the Opportunity to Challenge Their Detention 

Oct 23 Friday, Washington DC — In response to today’s U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruling in Sosnava Rodriguez v. Ortega, a case concerning noncitizens’ constitutional right to challenge their detention when they are held without access to a bond hearing, the American Immigration Council and the National Immigration Project issued the following statements: 

“Today’s ruling is an affront to the U.S. Constitution. The principle at stake here is simple: if the government wants to detain someone, it has to explain why depriving them of their liberty is necessary. And anyone who is detained has the right to ask a judge for review of that detention. Instead, this ruling allows the government to lock people up when detention plainly serves no purpose, and without any way to challenge it,” said Rebecca Cassler, senior litigation attorney at the American Immigration Council, who argued the case before the Fifth Circuit. “The right to due process is a fundamental constitutional protection, and it is meant to protect every person in this country.  Because of today’s decision, that right is hollow for immigrants in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. But the logic of the Fifth Circuit’s decision threatens everyone in this country: when courts degrade the meaning of liberty for some, we all suffer the consequences. We will continue fighting to ensure that no one, not even this administration, is above the Constitution.” 

“Due process only means something if courts are willing to uphold it, and today the Fifth Circuit refused to. The consequences of this ruling will be felt by families and communities across Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, as well as the countless individuals the government intentionally transfers to immigration jails in these states to strip them of their rights,” said Ellie Norton, Supervising Attorney at the National Immigration Project. “This case is about three fathers who have lived in the United States for years, contributing to their communities and supporting their U.S. citizen children. They were torn from their families and locked up without ever being given the chance to go before an immigration judge to seek release. Their circumstances are far from unique. At a time when conditions in immigration detention are increasingly dangerous, this ruling opens the door to more people being locked up for no reason, with devastating consequences for them, their loved ones, and their community.”