Lately, when we hear anything ICE-related, we know bad news is coming—and this time, it’s no exception. Recent reports claim that ICE could potentially keep immigrants arrested for as long as it wants. Despite the law allowing some immigrants to have a trial and a bond hearing to see what will happen to them, it seems that ICE is interpreting the law differently. Now, most who entered the country without permission, whether they have obtained a citizen’s status or not, are at risk of spending the rest of their lives behind bars.
A recent article by The Marshall Project mentions how ICE could potentially keep immigrants behind bars indefinitely. For context, immigrant detention used to work so that only those who entered the border recently or were immigrants with a criminal record could be held without a bond hearing. On paper, that sounded great. However, in recent years, ICE seems to have taken liberties in interpreting the law.
According to the above report, nowadays, ICE can detain almost every immigrant without the right to a bond hearing. There have been cases of people who are married to US citizens being detained and not being allowed to see an immigration judge.
What makes the situation even scarier is that this new “mandatory detention” policy could become law, and the Supreme Court might make the final decision.
Apparently, despite many judges opposing the policy, the Supreme Court will decide how to interpret the law. In the worst-case scenario, ICE could continue detaining immigrants and keeping them behind bars for as long as it wants.
Everyone Is Afraid of the ‘Mandatory Detention’ Policy
When the news broke, several people shared their thoughts, with many expressing concern about how ICE is interpreting the law and how it seems to be ignoring the Fifth Amendment.
“Once all of this is said and done, the US needs a rebuild of the framework for taking custody of, detaining, and releasing people, including harm prevention, responsibility for care, and responsibility for property, possessions, and processes.“
“Let’s get a precedent in there that a Constitutional right doesn’t apply to everyone. And then they can start carving away Constitutional rights from everyone.“
The above are just some of the concerns people have about the so-called “mandatory detention” policy, which many hope won’t become the new law. Still, we’ll have to wait and see what the Supreme Court says.
