ACLU Comment on Immigration Bond Hearing Ruling

PASADENA, Calif. — A federal appeals court has affirmed and expanded its prior ruling that immigrants in prolonged detention receive a bond hearing. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The court ruled the government has the burden of proving its justification for continuing to hold immigrants in prolonged detention, that it must consider alternatives to detention, and that bond hearings must be provided periodically every six months. The decision could impact thousands of immigrants within the Ninth Circuit.

Ahilan Arulanantham, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project and deputy legal director of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, said:

"This decision substantially decreases the likelihood people will get lost in the system for years on end because there will be some examination of why the person is still locked away. It provides them with an elemental component of due process."

Counsel for plaintiffs are the ACLU, ACLU Foundation of Southern California, the Stanford Law School Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, and the law firm of Sidley Austin LLP.

The ruling is at: https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/rodriguez-et-al-v-robbins-et-al-ninth-circuit-decision

More information about this case, Rodriguez v. Robbins, is at: https://www.aclu.org/cases/rodriguez-et-al-v-robbins-et-al