Appeals court: Minor migrants must get hearings
Minors who enter the U.S. without permission must be given a court hearing to determine whether they can be released, a federal appeals court panel decided unanimously Wednesday.
The three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said immigration authorities continue to be bound by a 1997 lawsuit settlement that guaranteed court hearings for minor immigrants, set standards for their detention and established a policy in favor of their release.
Following that settlement, Congress passed two laws dealing with unaccompanied minor immigrants. The federal government argued those laws replaced the settlement and revoked the right to bond hearings.
The 9th Circuit disagreed. “In the absence of such hearings, these children are held in bureaucratic limbo, left to rely upon the (government’s) alleged benevolence and opaque decision making,” Judge Stephen Reinhardt, a Jimmy Carter appointee, wrote for the court.
The settlement of Flores vs. Janet Reno required that juveniles detained near the border or elsewhere without a parent must be given bond hearings. The hearings gave minors the right to a lawyer, an opportunity to challenge government evidence against them and the right to contest being locked up, the panel said.
The 9th Circuit cited evidence that the government has been holding minors for months or even years without hearings, even when parents are nearby and can care for them. The court cited evidence that some juveniles have agreed to deportation rather than face continued incarceration without their families.
The government may appeal the panel’s decision to a larger 9th Circuit panel or to the U.S. Supreme Court.