At Boston Immigration Court, ICE Must Now Justify Detaining Noncitizens — Reversing Decades of Precedent
Maryam Saleh
January 6 2020, 12:11 p.m.
For the first time in at least two decades, lawyers for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are required to justify the detainment of noncitizens who are awaiting court proceedings in New England.
In immigration proceedings, unlike in criminal courts, immigrants bear the burden of proving to the satisfaction of a judge that that they do not pose a danger or a flight risk — or else they are denied bond and locked up. But a November decision by a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts reversed the burden of proof, instead calling on ICE to establish why someone ought to be detained.
The ruling came in a class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts last June and went into effect on December 13.
https://theintercept.com/2020/01/06/boston-immigration-court-ice-detain/
