FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: media@vera.org

WASHINGTON, DC – Last night, the Supreme Court ruled to allow the Trump administration to resume mass arrests and deportations under a wartime authority invoked by the president last month that gives the federal government sweeping power to detain and deport people without a hearing or any opportunity to defend themselves. Though the ruling affirms that notice and a hearing are required, the limited procedural safeguard does little to blunt the extraordinary harm of invoking the act to target immigrant communities with no meaningful way for them to defend their rights.

Shayna Kessler and Nicole Melaku, co-leaders of the Fairness to Freedom campaign for universal representation, issued the following statements:

Shayna Kessler, director of the Advancing Universal Representation initiative at the Vera Institute of Justice, said: “The Trump administration has sent hundreds of people to languish in an inhumane prison in El Salvador—without a hearing or access to counsel. With yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling, the administration has a green light to continue advancing mass detention and family separation. While the Court ruled that people must be given notice and a hearing, it is far from upholding the fundamental right to due process. The requirement that people get a hearing will do nothing to ensure due process, as most people will be fending for their lives in highly complex legal proceedings without counsel. Yet again, the burden falls on immigrants to fight for the protections they are owed under the law.”

Nicole Melaku, executive director of the National Partnership for New Americans, said: “The right to due process under the Constitution not only provides notice and a hearing, but also access to legal representation to ensure that legal procedures are conducted with ‘fundamental fairness.’ Over 60 years ago last month, the Supreme Court ruled that people in criminal court must be provided a lawyer if they cannot afford one so that both sides are represented. This is not the case in immigration court or for immigrants pursuing complex habeas corpus claims in federal court. The Court’s ruling fails to address this fundamental gap in justice.

“Meaningful access to due process will continue to escape people vulnerable to detention and deportation under this act. And now, with the government's assault on immigration lawyers—through cutting programs and threats against the immigration bar—it will be even harder for people in detention to assert their claims in federal court, rendering this decision's affirmation of due process rights hollow. For due process to be fully realized, immigrants should be provided representation to help them defend their rights, and lawlessness on behalf of the highest office of the land should be held to account.”

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Fairness to Freedom: The Campaign for Universal Representation was launched by the National Partnership for New Americans and the Vera Institute of Justice in April 2022 with a coalition of over 200 organizations and legal service providers. The campaign’s goal is to support the passage of the Fairness to Freedom Act to establish a federal right to representation for all immigrants facing deportation.