Two Federal Appeals Courts Rule Against Mandatory Detention of Noncitizens
Feature Story by Rob Randhava - December 20, 2001
In significant victories for immigration, human and civil rights advocates, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Third and Ninth Circuits have ruled that a 1996 immigration law provision requiring all noncitizens convicted of a criminal offense to be imprisoned, without bail, while awaiting deportation after the completion of their sentences, is unconstitutional. The ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project argued both cases. The rulings, only several weeks apart, come six months after a major victory in the U.S. Supreme Court, when the Court held that a separate provision of the immigration laws did not permit the indefinite detention of deportees who could not be returned to their native countries.
