Federal judge rules immigration officials, Rhode Island violated rights of detained citizen News
Federal judge rules immigration officials, Rhode Island violated rights of detained citizen

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Rhode Island ruled [opinion, PDF] Tuesday that immigration officials and the state of Rhode Island violated the Constitution in detaining a US citizen without probable cause. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] filed the lawsuit for Ada Morales, a naturalized US citizen born in Guatemala and was arrested [ACLU press release] by Rhode Island in 2009. Immigration and Customs Enfrcement (ICE) issued an immigration hold on her that resulted in the Department of Corrections holding her for 24 hours after a judge ordered her release. During her detainment Morales offered to show her naturalization certificate as well as her passport. The judge ultimately ruled [ACLU case materials] that the detention violated her constitutional rights to freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, writing:

Morales’ “illegal detention revealed a dysfunction of constitutional proportion at both the state and federal levels and a unilateral refusal to take responsibility for the fact that a United States citizen lost her liberty due to a baseless immigration detainer through no fault of her own.”

The US Supreme Court [official website] heard oral arguments [day call, PDF] in November in an immigration case that will determine the permissible length of detention [JURIST report] before a bond hearing is necessary, if one is required at all. Jennings v. Rodriguez [SCOTUSblog materials] is a class-action lawsuit challenging immigration detention procedures. Alejandro Rodriguez, a permanent resident that was detained for three years before being allowed to remain in the US, and the rest of the class argue [transcript, PDF] that the government must provide bond hearings for opportunity of release to detainees rather than holding them for extended periods of time with no showing of necessity. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] held in October 2015 that the government must provide bond hearings [JURIST report] at least every sixth months, and the government must show clear and convincing evidence to continue holding a person.

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