The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear a challenge to an appeals court ruling that said Arizona cannot deny bail to undocumented immigrants charged with “serious crimes,” meaning class 4 felonies or worse.
In April 2008, the American Civil Liberties Union challenged a law, Proposition 100, in federal court, arguing it violated the U.S. Constitution by keeping a certain group of people from a fair legal process. It violated the right to due process and the belief that people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Finally, in October 2014, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the law.
This is what Judge Raymond Fisher said at the time (from an ACLU summary):
“Proposition 100 categorically denies bail or other pretrial release and thus requires pretrial detention for every undocumented immigrant charged with any of a broad range of felonies, regardless of the seriousness of the offense or the individual circumstances of the arrestee, including the arrestee’s strong ties to and deep roots in the community. The defendants maintain that this unusual, sweeping pretrial detention statute, directed solely at undocumented immigrants, comports with substantive due process. It does not. The Supreme Court has made clear that “[i]n our society liberty is the norm, and detention prior to trial or without trial is the carefully limited exception.”
The state wanted to challenge the 9th Circuit decision, but the High Court said no today.
“Arizona officials who tried to strip people of a bail hearing and the presumption of innocence have reached the end of the road. Laws that are driven by fear-mongering rather than facts are bad policy and violate everyone’s civil liberties,” said Cecilia Wang, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, in a statement.
Prop 100 was approved by voters in 2006, at a time when other anti-immigrant laws like SB 1070 made their rounds.
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 3, 2015.
American Civil Liberties Union. Not South American Civil Liberties Union.
What is the end game here? Show me another country where this type of anarchistic immigration brings success to people and the state.
Where has the ACLU been when American citizens have been illegally searched, stolen from and killed for the past 10 years?
As much as I disagree with illegal immigration, Prop 100 goes against what our nation was founded on, namely that no one shall be held without due process. Even UDAs are entitled to that same protection under the law, otherwise which group is next to be targeted by those wanting to save us from ourselves. What needs to happen instead is to return judicial discretion to judges rather than forcing more mandates on them, which is why our nation now leads the world in incarcerations.
I have to agree with Edge Harvey on his point.