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SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City is among 20 cities and counties across the country that have joined a court brief opposing long and unreviewed detention for immigrants awaiting deportation.
In a "friend of the court" brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, the list of cities and counties coast-to-coast called on the court to uphold constitutional protections for immigrants detained by the federal government.
Cities named in the amicus brief offered support for a decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordering that detainees should be given a bond hearing every six months. The Supreme Court announced last summer that it would review the appellate court's decision.
In a release Monday, Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski said anytime members of its community are denied constitutional rights, "Salt Lake City will take an interest."
"This type of prolonged detention puts jobs at risk, creates obstacles to education, and generally hurts families living in our community," Biskupski said.
Salt Lake City Attorney Margaret Plane said the city is committed to protecting due process rights.
"In Utah, those accused of crimes receive individualized hearings to consider whether they may be released, yet certain groups of immigrants — including those with no criminal record and those entering the country to seek asylum — can be held indefinitely without ever receiving an individualized hearing for consideration of their release," Plane said in the release.
In Utah, Salt Lake resident Martin Chairez-Castrejon, of Mexico, was detained in the Utah County Jail for more than three years with no bond hearing. Following a series of articles published by the Deseret News detailing the case, Chairez-Castrejon was granted a hearing last June where immigration Judge David C. Anderson awarded him a $50,000 bond.
Chairez-Castrejon was released from detention in July when his family paid the bond.
The case before the Supreme Court, Jennings v. Rodriguez, stems from a lawsuit filed out of Los Angeles by the American Civil Liberties Union representing immigrants detained for months or years with no opportunity to ask for release while a deportation decision was pending.
One original plaintiff in the case, Alejandro Rodriguez of Mexico, was detained more than three years without ever receiving a bond hearing, according to the ACLU.
The ACLU calls prolonged detention with no review a waste of taxpayer dollars, especially considering the cost of detaining immigrants who have no prior criminal history in the country and could be safely released while they await a disposition in their case.
According to the ACLU, detention carries "a daily cost of $164 per detainee per day, and more than $2 billion a year. In America, no one should be locked up for months or years without a hearing to determine if their detention is even justified."
Other cities and counties joining the brief, filed by Santa Clara County in California, include the Alameda County, California; Austin, Texas; Baltimore; Carrboro, North Carolina; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Chicago; Cincinnati; the city and county of Denver; the District of Columbia; King County, Washington; Minneapolis; Oakland, California; Portland, Oregon; the city and county of San Francisco; San Jose, California; San Mateo, California; Seattle; and Tucson, Arizona.
