The Justice Department has quietly tightened
the rules that govern the detention of foreigners, letting the government keep
them behind bars even after a federal immigration judge has ordered their
release for lack of evidence.
The change allows the Immigration and
Naturalization Service to automatically set aside any release order given by an
immigration judge in cases where the INS believes an immigrant is a danger to
the community or a flight risk. To have the ruling set aside, the INS simply
must file a form announcing that it plans to appeal the decision to the Board
of Immigration Appeals. If that board orders the immigrant released, the INS
also can set aside that order under the new regulation by taking the case to
the attorney general.
Immigration lawyers, who represent many of the
1,100 noncitizens arrested after the attacks on Sept. 11, are furious about the
new rule, saying it deprives the detainees of the fundamental right of bond
hearings.