Chicago appeals court hears arguments in bid to release hundreds of detained immigrants
Hundreds of immigrants detained by federal agents in the Chicago area in recent months will remain in custody at least a little while longer while an appeals court weighs whether they should be released on bond.
A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday heard arguments on those immigrants' bid to be released while a lower court judge dtermines whether they were illegally arrested in violation a court order limiting immigration arrests without a prior warrant or probable cause.
Attorneys for both sides had 20 minutes to make their case to the judges, answering questions about whether or not the original federal judge in this case had the authority to order the release of hundreds of people on bond.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings ordered hundreds of people detained by federal immigration agents to be released from custody, after determining their arrests were possibly illegal and in violation of an earlier court order.
The order requires U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to place a subset of 615 people arrested by federal immigration officials in recent months into "alternatives to detention" programs or be released on bond while Cummings determines whether they were illegally arrested.
But the 7th Circuit later paused that order before any of the immigrants were released, after the Trump administration argued Cummings made a number of errors in his ruling and put public safety at risk.
"We think that Judge Cummings acted well within his authority, but the judges have clearly given this a great deal of thought, and we are hopefully going to get a decision soon," said Karen Zwick, director of litigation for the National Immigrant Justice Center.
Attorneys for the National Immigrant Justice Center have been fighting for a consent decree forbidding federal agents from conducting warrantless immigration arrests without probable cause since the first Trump administration.
"We began settlement negotiations before Biden took office, before the election, during the first Trump administraiton. So it's not as if this was a decree that was completely a Biden administration issue. This is a decree that the first Trump administration sought,"
In 2022, both sides signed the agreement. A few weeks ago, the government was presented with countless violations of that agreement from the past year, many during Operation Midway Blitz, the Trump administration's ongoing immigraiton enforcement effort in the Chicago area.
Last month, Cummings ordered the release of hundreds of people on bond pending their immigration cases, but that order is now on hold as the 7th Circuit weighs the Trump administration's challenge to the judge's ruling.
"What the consent decree does is not something novel that the law didn't already require," National Immigrant Justice Center associate director of litigation Mark Fleming said.
In their appeal of Cumming's ruling, attorneys for the Department of Homeland Security have argued that the court cannot get involved in this way in the immigration crackdown.
If the majority of the 7th Circuit panel that heard argumens on Tuesday rules against the Trump administration, an estimated 400 to 450 immigrants now in custody could be released on bond while their deportation cases proceed. Others whose arrests might have violated a previous court order either already have been released or deported, or have been deemed public safety threats who will remain in custody.
Court documents show that of the more than 600 immigrants involved in this cased, only 16 of them have been identified by the federal government as a "high public safety risk" because of their alleged criminal histories.
Attorneys for the government have already hinted that in that, should the 7th Circuit panel rule against them, they'd appeal again either to the full 7th Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court.