Amicus Brief in Nielsen v. Preap

A case before the Supreme Court could mean that thousands of people are forced into mandatory detention without a bond hearing. This would be an unacceptable expansion of our already out-of-control immigration system, which criminalizes people of color.

Advancement Project’s national office signed-on to the NYU School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic amicus brief filed in the United States Supreme Court in the case of Nielsen v. Preap, Number 16-1363. The brief, filed on August 13, 2018, features stories on the impact of application of mandatory no-bond detention to individuals who have returned to their communities following their release from criminal custody. At issue is the risk of the Supreme Court re-interpreting a statute that would grant DHS unfettered authority to arrest and detain any noncitizen who has been in criminal custody at any time following their release from criminal custody – including years after the fact.

An adverse ruling would be unacceptable – it could subject thousands of individuals to mandatory detention without a bond hearing. This would be devastating to immigrant communities, and particularly to our partnership work with organizations whose members were previously in criminal custody – even if decades after their release.