OPINION:
Gavel-wielding partisans are losing the power to grant special privileges to noncitizens. The 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals last week demolished the fanciful theories that lower-court magistrates have come up with to treat people who broke into the country better than Americans.
Within Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi and anywhere else courts are persuaded, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will no longer have to sit back and watch as the villains they captured are set free in a matter of hours after left-wing groups that hate law, order and borders post bail.
Attorney General Pam Bondi called the first-of-its-kind decision “a significant blow against activist judges who have been undermining our efforts to make America safe again at every turn.”
The three-judge panel reached this conclusion by reasoning that when the federal act says, “Any alien subject to the procedures under this clause shall be detained pending a final determination … until removed,” it means illegal aliens shall be detained until they are removed.
Democratic-appointed district court judges take creative liberty in interpreting the relevant provisions to stand congressional intent on its head. Their goal is to bail out as many illegal aliens as they can, while groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union lodge appeals at each stage to drag out proceedings and ensure justice is never accomplished.
Writing for the 5th Circuit panel, Judge Edith H. Jones points out that the federal objective is to handle immigration cases differently. “The text says what it says, regardless of the decisions of prior Administrations,” she concluded. “Years of consistent practice cannot vindicate an interpretation that is inconsistent with a statute’s plain text.”
Granting full “due process” rights to foreign intruders can have deadly consequences for the rest of society. California’s sanctuary policies, for instance, will eventually let loose 33,179 criminals who don’t belong in this nation, including 399 murderers, 3,171 burglars and 1,293 sexual predators.
Liberals lie about the impact these freed crooks can have on the public good. Last week, a Boston jury found Lina Maria Orovio-Hernandez, 59, guilty of using a stolen identity to vote in the 2024 election — and probably not for President Trump. Orovio-Hernandez sneaked into the country from Colombia and is not entitled to stay here, yet she also scammed $400,000 in Social Security, housing and food stamp benefits.
Foreigners aren’t the only ones cashing in. Immigration lawyers pull in big money as they file endless motions for an ever-expanding client base. Liberal billionaires are happy to reward anyone who thwarts deportations. In the past decade, the Board of Immigration Appeals caseload skyrocketed from 37,000 to more than 200,000.
Mr. Trump is done playing these games.
His One Big Beautiful Bill Act imposes a mandatory $1,000 fee on each immigration case and shortens the deadline for filing complaints from 30 days to 10. Effective March 6, the administration’s default position will be to deny all challenges unless a majority of immigration board members vote to hear the case.
“And such dismissals will occur quickly — within 15 days of filing the appeal — allowing aliens to seek Federal court review expeditiously, rather than potentially waiting for years for a Board decision that in the vast majority of cases would affirm the underlying Immigration Judge decision,” the new Justice Department regulation explains.
These developments will go a long way toward restoring a “due process” that returns noncitizen offenders to their home countries as swiftly as possible.
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