Until Friday evening, the effort by the Trump administration to engage in “mass removals” of illegal aliens — a Trump campaign promise — has suffered from two primary hampering factors: 1 ) limited bed space in detention facilities that created a bottleneck; and 2) a practice in place for nearly 30 years that illegal aliens arrested in the interior of the country were almost always released back to their lives while being given a Notice to Appear to initiate removal proceedings against them at some time in the future. . . .
The math said that nearly 1.2 million illegal aliens released on bond would not appear for their removal hearing before an immigration judge.
Late on Friday night, the Fifth Circuit’s 2-1 decision in a closely watched case held that the Trump Administration has the authority under the immigration statutes to detain — with no bond hearing required — any illegal aliens taken into ICE detention at any location in the country.
Stay tuned.