Thread by @matt_cam

Monday's #SCOTUS decision denying detained immigrants the right to a class action to challenge their custody just became very real for me, my asylum-seeking client, and who knows how many other people detained in Mississippi (and beyond) right now in unconstitutional limbo

If you haven't already seen it, pls re-read this excerpt from Sotomayor's dissent in Gonzalez and consider the horrific reality of what she is saying. Alito has for all intents made the law of detention voluntary for ICE in the majority of detained cases

https://twitter.com/matt_cam/status/1536376831607447552

Locking someone up indefinitely without telling them why and presenting no formal evidence to support their detention is the least Constitutional scenario I can imagine. We don't even do this to Gitmo detainees, and t would be national news if a U.S. citizen were treated this way

Many, but not all, of the worst Trump/Miller executive immigration policies were blocked by federal courts but last January #SCOTUS effectively signed off on AG Barr's binding decision denying bond hearings to many recent arrivals seeking asylum

That decision related to those who had already been screened for eligibility to present an asylum claim to an #immigrationcourt--and that was bad enough. But what happens when ICE refuses to either send them to court directly OR screen them? As of now for nearly everyone: nothing

Until Monday, if we could prove that ICE were routinely violating detainee rights this way we could bundle the cases into a class for review by a federal judge. Thanks to Alito's weirdass textualism, they now must be raised individually: aka, in practical terms, not at all

The judge reviewing my client's case this morning was not happy with DHS's delay, and reminded my client that he has a right to seek review of his detention in MS federal court. This is true! But in very much the same way that he has the right to travel to the moon.

Like so much of immigration law at this point we're now up against what I call the Strummer Doctrine:

"You have the right... so long as you're not dumb enough to actually TRY it!"