Trump’s administration is furious with a federal judge who just added complications to the crisis at the southern border.
Judge Marsha Pechman blocked Attorney General Barr’s order regarding detaining asylum seekers indefinitely until we can figure out what is going on at the southern border.
There are overwhelming evidence that people are gaming the asylum system and they shouldn’t even take the blame. All they want is a better life and they can get it here, we would probably do the same. The problem is with our politicians who refuse to accept the new reality and change our laws to reflect the situation.
On Tuesday, The Hill reported that a federal judge blocked an order from Attorney General Bill Barr that stated certain asylum-seekers can be detained indefinitely.
U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman in Washington state wrote that it was “unconstitutional” to deny asylum-seekers a bond hearing while they wait for their asylum claims to be processed.
“It is the finding of this Court that it is unconstitutional to deny these class members a bond hearing while they await a final determination of their asylum request,” Pechman, a Clinton appointee, wrote in her ruling.
Earlier this year, he judge issued a preliminary injunction that required asylum-seekers who are given a hearing in their proceedings to be released within one week after that hearing is granted.
Trump’s administration asked her to dismiss that ruling after AG Barr issued his new asylum order. But Pechman rejected the request in her order on Tuesday, finding that the policy implemented by AG Barr’s order was unconstitutional.
In the order issued in April, AG Barr had written that asylum-seekers who are able to demonstrate a “credible fear” and are sent to full deportation proceedings cannot be released on bond.
That directive overturned a ruling by the Board of Immigration Appeals in 2005 that found asylum-seekers could be released on bond if they are able to exhibit they have credible fear of persecution or danger if they leave the U.S.
“I conclude that such aliens remain ineligible for bond, whether they are arriving at the border or are apprehended in the United States,” AG Barr wrote at the time, invoking a statute included in the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Pechman wrote that she was adjusting her previous preliminary injunction requiring the release of those impacted asylum-seekers to also address AG Barr’s order and that the new injunctions will go into effect within 14 days of it being issued.
Judge Pechman cited a previous Supreme Court ruling that “definitively established the immigrant detainees’ constitutionally-protected interest in freedom from unnecessary incarceration.”
She also wrote that the migrants are “are entitled to due process protections,” including a “longstanding prohibition against indefinite civil detention with no opportunity to test its necessity.”
“The Court finds that Plaintiffs have established a constitutionally-protected interest in their liberty, a right to due process which includes a hearing before a neutral decisionmaker to assess the necessity of their detention, and a likelihood of success on the merits of that issue,” Pechman wrote.
And the judge again ruled that asylum-seekers are likely to face “irreparable harm” under the policy.
“The decision ignores an express statutory prohibition on granting class-wide injunctive relief against enforcement of the immigration laws and also holds unconstitutional a statute passed by bipartisan majorities in Congress during the Clinton administration that specifically prohibits the release of certain immigrants on bond,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said on Wednesday.