Detention of Illegal Immigrants
Clinton-appointed judge Fred Biery, who ordered the release of a foreigner detained by ICE with his 5-year-old son, claims that the Constitution doesn’t allow ICE to detain “undocumented people” without “warrants” from an “independent judicial officer.”
IN FACT, federal law and the U.S. Supreme Court state the polar opposite because the detention and removal of illegal aliens is commonly a civil matter, not a criminal one:
- The federal law that governs the “apprehension and detention of aliens” states that an “alien may be arrested and detained pending a decision on whether the alien is to be removed” on a “warrant issued by the Attorney General,” which is not a judicial warrant but an administrative one.
- A 1952 Supreme Court ruling states that “deportation” has “been consistently classified as a civil, rather than a criminal, procedure.”
- A 1913 Supreme Court ruling states that “deportation” is not based on the “conviction of crime, nor is the deportation a punishment; it is simply a refusal by the government to harbor persons whom it does not want.”
In keeping with those facts, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers explains, “It is important to keep in mind that the underlying basis for a non-citizen’s removability may be due to some criminal violation, but the removal warrant used by ICE is not a criminal warrant signed by a federal judge.”
