“Today, six Supreme Court justices… sanctioned the United States’ use of punitive, prolonged, and arbitrary detention as a means of immigration enforcement and deterrence.”
By Brett Wilkins, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-29-2021
Demonstrators protest United States immigration policy in Washington, D.C. in 2017. Photo: Ted Eytan/CC BY-SA 2.0
In a decision called “horrifying” by human rights advocates, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the government may indefinitely detain previously deported immigrants who claim they will be tortured or persecuted if returned to their countries of origin.
The court ruled 6-3 along ideological lines in Johnson v. Guzman Chavez that a group of previously removed immigrants who were apprehended again after reentering the United States could not be released on bond while the government evaluates their claims of “reasonable fear” of torture or persecution. The decision reverses a U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in the immigrants’ favor. Continue reading
