Supreme Court limits jailing of illegal immigrants

• Criminal aliens can't be held indefinitely, justices ruled, but the U.S. needs no permission to deport.

The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the government may not indefinitely detain criminals who are illegal immigrants, undercutting a Bush administration policy applied to foreigners deemed too dangerous to be freed. In a separate ruling, the justices said the United States may deport immigrants without first getting permission from the receiving country. The 5-4 ruling will hasten the return of thousands of Somalis who have resisted going back to their war-torn homeland. The detention case, consolidating Clark v. Martinez and Benitez v. Rozos, involved two men who were part of the 1980 Mariel exodus, in which Cuban President Fidel Castro sent criminals and psychiatric patients to the United States along with thousands of other fleeing Cubans. The Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that it would be unconstitutional to detain legal immigrants who have served time for crimes for more than a "reasonable period," generally six months. That also should cover illegal immigrants, the court ruled 7-2 yesterday. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority: "The government fears that the security of our borders will be compromised if it must release into the country inadmissible aliens who cannot be removed. If that is so, Congress can attend to it." The administration had argued for wide discretion in holding foreigners, particularly after the Sept. 11 attacks. "It's a great victory," said Judith Rabinowitz, a senior lawyer for ACLU's Immigration Rights Project, which filed a brief supporting the immigrants. Justice Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist dissented, saying the government should have greater authority to detain illegal immigrants for national security reasons. [more] and[more]