Plan to Deny Bail to Jailed Asylum Seekers is Blocked

the southern border from being released into the country. A federal judge in Seattle has blocked the plan to jail immigrants seeking asylum and denied them bail if they crossed into the US border without permission. Joining me is Cardike Marotra, Bloomberg News legal reporter. So Cardike start by telling us about Trump's plan. So this is actually Attorney General William

Barr's plan. What happened was, over the course of this administration, asylum applicants have been incarcerated for extended periods of time. It's not explicitly unique to this administration. The Obama administration did something similar. But these plaintiffs had sought a pulmonary injunction requiring the administration to give them bail hearings, and

this court had won. Then in April, a G. Bar Um issued a notice stating that there is no requirement that asylum applicants who seek asylum within the United States, not at the border, be given a prompt bail hearing uh and ultimately this judge said that that is actually unconstitutional. She also set forward some specifics for the hearings ahead.

What did she say has to happen. So what happens is in the process of applying for asylum, the applicants have to demonstrate a credible fear of being forced to return to their home countries, and if they do demonstrate that, then they are eligible for asylum. However, that's just one

step in the process. And so this judge has said that if they are granted that credible fear and they will proceed in the asylum process, then the immigration judge must hold a bail hearing within seven days of a request for a bail hearing, and if they do not grant a bail hearing immediately, that applicant must be released. Also, immigration courts must, I guess, be more transparent in the way that they are conducting these hearings, and so transcripts

and audio recordings of proceedings must be made available. So apprehensions of prospective asylum seekers have more than doubled in the last year, according to Customs and Border Protection. Would this order by bar have just added more people to the overcrowded facilities. Uh? Yes, yes, it would ensure that folks who are incarcerated will remain incarcerated until the US

government resolves their asylum application. One could presume that if the government is willing to consider these bail hearings and actually release applicants unbailed, that it would release the pressure on on facilities where they are being incarcerated, where we've read quite a lot about conditions being quite poor. White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham criticized the ruling and attacked the judge, as Trump has done before with the decisions and immigration.

No single district judge has legitimate authority to impose his or her open border views on the country. Does this refer to the president who appointed this judge? Being democratic? Likely? It has been part of the Trump administrations and President Trump's attacks on judges across the country in the past. We frequently see them labeled as Obama activists. Judges. Uh, you know, I think the administration believes that and Uh.

They've argued in court repeatedly that they have the ultimate authority to determine the country's border and immigration policy, and any judge, be it an Obama pointed drudge or or a Bush appointed judge or anyone else, cannot interfere. They do not have the judicial authority to to overrule the the executive And so that that argument will again be tested as this case is litigated in higher courts. That

was my next question. Has the White House said or the Justice Department said, if they're going to appeal this Uh. They have not yet, but it is quite likely because the U. S. Supreme Court ruled last year the applicants at the border are not entitled to bail hearing. So if you stand in line for days, seek asylum and are detained, you do demonstrate a credible fear. Uh, there's

no guarantee that you will receive a prompt uh hearing. Now, this case involves individuals who have entered the US through other means, waiting over water, crossing over mountains to get into the United States, and then you see an immigration officer or border patrol agent elsewhere. Um uh. And so in that earlier case, the Supreme Court said that there is no eligibility for our constitutional right to an asylum hearing in this case, we're likely to see the Trump

administration use that ruling to appeal up the chain. Is this the so called catch and release that President Trump complains about, saying that once you once they have the the immigrants, and then they release them, they don't come back for further court hearings. Exactly. The Trump administration's concern is that if you offer bailuh to an asylum applicant,

you've released them into the interior. And so there's question as to whether um, these individuals will will come back for their um their asylum hearings because you've you've released them to United States. There's data that indicates that that that premise is simply not true. And um Cardi case. If you know, do many do most immigrants get bail? I mean they don't. They don't have You would suspect that they're they're coming here, they're they're poor and they

don't have much money. Do they are they make bail? You know? The question first is whether they have a credible fear, and if they do demonstrate that credible fear, then the most applicants. Uh, if they do get their bail hearing, do receive bail? Yes? Okay, So, um, let's talk a little bit about some of the other things that the Trump administration has tried and failed as far as stopping immigrants at the border. What other legal what

other legal avenues have been closed to them? Sure, well they've They've started by by metering applicants uh, and that still continues. But their effort to effectively shut down the asylum program or or force individuals to wait in Mexico have been litigated and relitigated. Um. Currently returned to Mexico is allowed. That's one of the few wins the Trump administration has enjoyed. But they have effectively been prohibited from from broadly shutting down the program altogether and and and

turning people away simply for requesting asylum. Right, Thanks so much, Cardike. It is continuingly a news item there as far as these different uh immigration plans by the Trump administration. That's Cardke Morotra, Bloomberg News Legal Reporter. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Law podcast. You can subscribe and listen to the show on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, and on Bloomberg dot Com slash Podcast. I'm June Brosso. This is Bloomberg