Politico reports:

A federal appeals court Friday night backed the Trump administration’s policy to lock up the vast majority of people it is seeking to deport without offering a chance for bond, even if they have no criminal records and have resided in the country for decades.

A divided three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the administration’s view — a reversal of every administration’s position for the last 30 years — is the correct interpretation of the federal government’s power to detain people targeted for deportation.

“That prior Administrations decided to use less than their full enforcement authority … does not mean they lacked the authority to do more,” Judge Edith Jones, a Reagan appointee, wrote for the 2-1 majority.

The matter could soon be headed for Supreme Court consideration.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement adopted a new view of the law in July, prompting an explosion of arrests and detentions — and a flood of lawsuits from detainees who argued that they were illegally locked up without due process.

The vast majority of judges across the country have rejected the administration’s approach. A POLITICO review of thousands of ICE detention cases found that at least 360 judges rejected the expanded detention strategy — in more than 3,000 cases — while just 27 backed it in about 130 cases. [Continue reading…]

Portland Press Herald reports:

Many of the Maine residents arrested during an immigration enforcement operation last month were processed at a facility in Massachusetts that attorneys warn has deplorable conditions and is not set up for extended detention.

When Immigration and Customs Enforcement pulled all of its detainees out of the Cumberland County Jail, many of them were moved to a field office in Burlington, Massachusetts, about 100 miles from Portland.

The facility is designed for administrative processing, but immigration attorneys say it has been holding some people for more than 10 days, raising concerns about due process and access to legal counsel.

Lisa Parisio, policy director at the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, said her organization learned the facility was “heavily” used during what ICE called “Operation Catch of the Day” and is deeply alarmed by reports about the conditions there, including overcrowding and lack of access to medication.

Attorneys throughout Maine and Massachusetts told the Sun Journal they’ve heard stories of as many as 50 people to a cell — men and women in some cases — with no windows and limited airflow, a single camera-monitored toilet, aluminum blankets, no showers and poor quality food.

“They’re trapped in this little confinement cell, a dark cell with no sunlight, with multiple people,” said Shaan Chatterjee, an attorney at New England Immigration Law. “They’re basically torturing people into signing off on their own deportation.” [Continue reading…]