SCOTUS

SCOTUS Upholds DACA, Giving Temporary Victory to Many Undocumented Immigrants

In a landmark decision today, the Supreme Court of the United States narrowly threw a lifeline to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program by holding that the Trump administration sought to end the program in an arbitrary and capricious manner. For now, DACA lives. However, the Supreme Court decision did not say that DACA is legal or that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had to keep...

SCOTUS Ruling In Pereira v. Sessions Gives Hope To Thousands of Non-Citizens

Individuals now have a new way to challenge their removal proceedings. In an 8-1 ruling, the Supreme Court of the United States held that “a putative notice sent to a nonpermanent resident to appear at a removal proceeding that fails to designate a specific time or place for that proceeding does not end the continuous residence period calculation necessary for possible cancellation of the individual’s removal.” An applicant for...

Supreme Court to Decide Whether “When Released” Means Immediately Released from Criminal Custody

In Nielsen v. Preap, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the government’s petition for a writ of certiorari, Kelly v. Preap, in which the question presented is, “Whether a criminal alien becomes exempt from mandatory detention under 8 U.S.C. 1226(c) if, after the alien is released from criminal custody, the Department of Homeland Security does not take him into immigration custody immediately.” The statute in question provides that the Attorney...

Supreme Court Holds No Statutory Mandate for Bond Hearings

Today, the Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling that the right to periodic bond hearings for detained aliens during their detention was not provided by any detention statute: 8 USCA § 1225(b) (detention pending credible fear interviews and consideration of applications for asylum), § 1226(a) (discretionary detention pending a decision on removal), or § 1226(c) (mandatory detention pending a decision on removal...