(Reuters) – A federal judge yesterday threw out an administrative board’s decision that endorsed the Trump administration’s policy of placing thousands of people arrested during its immigration crackdown in mandatory detention without a chance to be released on bond.
U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes in Riverside, California, vacated the decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals after finding the administration had failed to comply with an earlier order she issued declaring the underlying policy unlawful.
Sykes, who was appointed by former Democratic President Joe Biden, called the administration’s actions “shameless” and accused it of trying to “continue their campaign of illegal action” by still refusing to grant bond hearings even after her ruling.
“Respondents have far crossed the boundaries of constitutional conduct,” Sykes wrote.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Justice, which oversees the board, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Under federal immigration law, “applicants for admission” to the United States are subject to mandatory detention while their cases proceed in immigration courts and are ineligible for bond hearings.
Bucking a long-standing interpretation of the law, the DHS last year – as part of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown – took the position that non-citizens already residing in the United States, and not only those who arrive at a port of entry at the border, qualify as applicants for admission.
The Board of Immigration Appeals, which is part of the Justice Department, issued a decision in September that adopted that interpretation, leading to immigration judges nationally employed by the department to mandate detention.
Sykes in a ruling in December declared the DHS policy unlawful but stopped short of vacating the board’s decision.
But she said it was clear further relief was needed after Chief Immigration Judge Teresa Riley issued guidance instructing her colleagues that they are not bound by Sykes’ ruling and that they should continue following the board’s decision.
Those immigration judges are employed by the Justice Department.
Sykes, in Wednesday’s decision, criticized DHS for repeatedly and inaccurately suggesting that operations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were limited to targeting criminal non-citizens who were the “worst of the worst.”
“Maybe that phrase merely mirrors the severity and ill-natured conduct by the Government,” Sykes wrote. “Even though these press releases might contain an inkling of truth, they ignore a greater, more dire reality.”
