Federal Appeals Court Reverses Habeas Decision, Denies Right to Bond Hearing in Mandatory Detention Case

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — A federal appeals court today reversed a district court’s decision granting habeas relief to Nyynkpao Banyee, ruling instead that a long-time lawful permanent resident like Mr. Banyee must remain in immigration detention, with no limit, while awaiting a decision in his deportation case. The decision denies Mr. Banyee his right to a bond hearing, and claims that “[d]ue process imposes no time limit on detention pending deportation."

“The court’s decision today is both cruel and wrong. Until today, no appellate court has agreed with the government’s extreme position that a lawful permanent resident like Mr. Banyee can be categorically detained for a prolonged period of time without ever getting a bond hearing. The court’s decision now threatens to tear Mr. Banyee apart from his family, community, and the life he has built over the last two and a half years,” said My Khanh Ngo, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union. “Mr. Banyee already served his time and has been successfully rehabilitated — both the immigration judge and Board of Immigration Appeals agree he is deserving of relief from removal, and he’s continued to do well since being released. Though today’s decision is disappointing, we remain hopeful that Mr. Banyee will ultimately win the right to stay in the United States, where he has lived since he was a child.”

Mr. Banyee’s case highlights the very problems with prolonged mandatory detention that advocates have consistently raised, especially with the over-policing of Black and Brown immigrants in the jail-to-deportation pipeline. The decision is a loss for immigrants’ rights, and sets a dangerous precedent that would allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold immigrants in detention for years on end — without any opportunity for a bond hearing — while they await the completion of their deportation proceedings.

“The right to personal liberty free from unjustified government incarceration is perhaps the most fundamental protection guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, and that guarantee extends to all of us regardless of immigration status,” said Benjamin Casper, staff attorney at the ACLU of Minnesota. “This decision violates that basic principle.”

Mr. Banyee fled Côte d’Ivoire as a child refugee and has never left the United States since coming with his family in 2004. Because of petty theft and robbery convictions from when he was just 18 and 19 years old, he was placed into removal proceedings in March 2021 and detained by ICE at the Kandiyohi County Jail for over 12 months without any individualized review or hearing before a judge. He was finally released on bond by an immigration judge in April 2022, after the district court granted his habeas petition and ordered a bond hearing.

“There is no question that this morning’s decision is a mistake that erodes important international human rights and Constitutional protections against prolonged arbitrary detention,” said Zack Albun, legal director, refugee and immigrant program at the Advocates for Human Rights. “Yet, we remain optimistic that the Courts will recognize (as the immigration judge in this case originally held) that Mr. Banyee is entitled to relief from removal, and that he will continue to thrive in his home, the United States.”

The federal government appealed the case, arguing that it has a right to detain individuals with no limit and without a hearing, as long as removal proceedings are ongoing. The Eighth Circuit heard oral arguments in February 2024, when lawyers for the ACLU argued that Mr. Banyee’s prolonged detention without a hearing violated his right to due process.