An appeals court just ruled that pretty much every unauthorized person is subject to mandatory detention without bail. This severely cuts back the legal standing of unauthorized persons who have lived here are a long time

It has been settled practice for decades that a person who recently entered the U.S. without authorization was vulnerable to detention but not a person who entered illegally many years ago, as the latter person was nor “seeking entry.” In Buenrostro-Mendez v. Bondi, The Fifth U.S. Court of Appeals decided on February 6  that this is not the case, that almost anyone here illegally is subject to detention, and mandatory detention without chance of bail.

With very limited exceptions, this mandatory detention rule now applies  persons whose asylum applications are in the court backlog.

The dissent in this 2 – 1 decision argued that the law which applies for mandatory detention only applies to persons “seeking entry,” not to those here for years, and that the pertinent Immigration and Nationality Act sections (1225 and 1226) were used correctly in the past. The two-person majority threw that standing interpretation out.

Note: visa overstays are not per the decision subject to mandatory detention because they are not “applicants for admission.”