Supreme Court Upholds Detention Pending Deportation Proceedings
The Supreme Court today issued an adverse ruling in Demore v. Kim on the issue of immigrants facing deportation hearings .
A sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a law requiring that legal immigrants who commit certain crimes in this country be detained in prison while awaiting deportation hearings.By a 5-4 vote, the high court sided with the U.S. Justice Department and rejected a constitutional challenge to a 1996 law that provides for mandatory detention of criminal immigrants while authorities attempt to deport them.
"We hold that Congress, justifiably concerned that deportable criminal aliens who are not detained continue to engage in crime and fail to appear for their removal hearings in large numbers, may require that (such) persons ... be detained," Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote for the majority in the 20-page opinion .
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