A U.S. appeals court said the "unreasonably prolonged" detention of green card holders without a bail hearing when they face deportation after being convicted of crimes can violate their constitutional rights, but declined to set a strict time limit. A unanimous panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it was unreasonable that a Jamaican man convicted of child sexual abuse and a Dominican citizen who pleaded guilty to assault were respectively detained for seven months and nearly two years without a chance to qualify for bail, reports Reuters. The court said that prolonged detention without a bail hearing can violate the due process rights of legal permanent residents under the U.S. Constitution. It declined calls by the petitioners and civil rights groups to require that bail hearings be held after six months of detention. Circuit Judge Susan Carney wrote that detention exceeding six months raises "serious due process concerns." Courts should "determine, case by case, whether and when due process requires that a particular detained noncitizen receive a bond hearing," she wrote.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 held that the indefinite detention of non-citizens without a bond hearing does not violate immigration law but did not address whether it runs afoul of detainees' constitutional rights. The Jamaican citizen, Carol Black, was admitted to the U.S. as a legal permanent resident in 1983 and in 2000 was convicted of sexually abusing a child younger than 11 years of age. Federal immigration authorities took Black into custody in 2019, citing his criminal record, and he is now appealing an immigration judge's 2023 ruling ordering his deportation. The Dominican man, identified as G.M., entered the country as a legal permanent resident in 2011 and four years later pleaded guilty to assault in connection with a fight at a bar, according to the 2nd Circuit ruling. He was detained in 2020 and is also appealing an immigration judge's deportation order. Federal immigration law requires authorities to detain and seek the deportation of immigrants who are convicted of certain felonies or accused of terrorism.