CA AG Bonta urges U.S. Supreme Court to protect due process for long-term immigrant detainees

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in a case about due process for immigrant detainees. The filing supports the idea that people held in civil immigration detention for very long periods should receive an individualized bond hearing.

The case discussed in the brief, Genalo v. GM, involves a legal permanent resident who was detained for about 21 months while his immigration court proceedings were pending, without a bond hearing. The argument presented is that prolonged detention without an individualized assessment can violate the Fifth Amendment right to due process.

According to the press release, the Second Circuit agreed with that view. The brief urges the Supreme Court to keep that decision in place, emphasizing that when detention becomes unreasonably prolonged, the government should have to justify continued detention through an individualized process.

The Attorney General also points to conditions in detention facilities and argues that long-term detention of noncitizens who do not pose a danger or risk of flight is unconstitutional. The filing asks the Supreme Court to prevent what it describes as unnecessary and prolonged “mass detention” while people await outcomes in removal proceedings.

This is not a final ruling by the Supreme Court, but it is a signal that California is asking the Court to preserve stronger due process protections for detainees facing long periods of confinement without bond hearings. For the most accurate details, readers may want to review the official amicus brief and the Supreme Court docket for the case.