New Decision on Bond Eligibility for Immigrants

Legal Status
By NATALIE GHAYOUMI  FEB. 28, 2018

New decision on bond eligibility for immigrants just came out February 2018 “Jennings v. Rodriguez” (See Court Document).

The decision is very critical for cases in Ninth Circuit, which had previously decided that any immigrant detained by I.C.E. regardless of manner and place of arrest qualifies for a bond hearing within 6 months of detention with I.C.E. and every 6 months from then. See Rodriguez v. Robbins, 804 F.3d 1060 (9th Cir. 2015) (Rodriguez III) and Rodriguez v. Robbins (Rodriguez II), 715 F.3d. 1127 (9th Cir. 2013). The new decision overrules that case. Jennings v. Rodriguez affects hundreds of people but not all immigrants in I.C.E. custody. The decision mainly talks about immigrants who come to the border seeking asylum without a valid visa or permission to enter (also known as “arriving aliens”) and those who have certain criminal convictions; this includes the group of individuals, who have a legal permanent resident status (green card holders) as well as undocumented individuals.

The Supreme Court in Jennings v. Rodriguez remanded the case to the Ninth Circuit with two critical questions for the Ninth Circuit to address: 1. Whether indefinite detention without a bond hearing is “unconstitutional” and 2. Whether this is a class action or an individual case.
As many know getting bond through immigration court is quite different than bond hearings with criminal court. Criminal court allows individuals to be represented by a public defender when they do not wish to or afford to hire a private attorney. This right is protected. This right however, does not exist for immigration court. Many immigrants, despite their great chances of receiving relief and legal status are not represented in court. This decision makes it extremely difficult for many immigrants in the U.S. who are legally or illegally in the U.S. but unable to hire an attorney to help them through their case. This decision allows I.C.E. to detain this group of individuals indefinitely.

Please call or contact our office via email or phone to see if your family or loved ones qualify for bond with immigration court or parole with an immigration officer at 805-500-8472; attyng@gmail.com