The case of Nyynkpao Banyee, originally from the Ivory Coast, could apply to any immigrant with a green card who faces detention and possible deportation proceedings: be detained indefinitely by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
This comes after the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals this week overturned a district court judge’s decision to release Banyee while he awaited a decision on his immigration case.
“Nyynkpao Banyee was released after the District Court determined that spending a year in detention awaiting ‘a decision on whether’ he should ‘be removed from the United States’ was too long,” the three-judge decision said. “However, due process imposes no time limit on detention pending removal, so we reverse the judgment.”
Banyee fled Ivory Coast as a child refugee and has never left the United States since arriving with his family in 2004, court documents show.
However, when he was 18 and 19 years old, he committed two minor robberies, so in March 2021 he was placed in deportation proceedings, despite having a Green Card.
ICE detained him, but kept him in prison for 12 months without the possibility of a hearing to request bail and face the trial in freedom, although in 2022 A district judge ruled that he should be released on bail.court documents indicate.
That decision was appealed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which ultimately won before the Eighth Circuit.
“To date, no appeals court has agreed with the government’s extreme position that a lawful permanent resident like Mr. Banyee can be categorically detained for an extended period of time without ever getting a bond hearing,” said My Khanh Ngo, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “The court’s decision now threatens to separate Mr. Banyee from his family, his community, and the life he has built over the past two and a half years.”
The expert noted that both the immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals agree that he deserves relief from deportation, but the appeals judges think otherwise, according to the court document, which lists his crimes.
“Banyee grew up in the United States as a legal permanent resident and began committing crimes after becoming an adult. These included theft, lying to police, and possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia,” the appeals court said. “The final straw was robbery with a dangerous weapon, which led federal authorities to initiate deportation proceedings.”
The consequences for other immigrants
Part of the justification is to point out that Immigrants are “deportable” if they commit a serious crimea drug offense or multiple offenses involving “moral depravity.”
“Mr. Banyee’s case highlights the same problems with prolonged mandatory detention that advocates have consistently raised, especially with the over-scrutiny of Black and Latino immigrants in the jail-to-deportation pipeline,” the ACLU said. “The decision is a loss for immigrant rights and sets a dangerous precedent.”
In other words, for the ACLU, the court’s decision is a kind of permission for ICE to keep immigrants detained for years, without any opportunity for a bond hearing, while they await the completion of their deportation proceedings.
“The right to personal liberty free from unjustified government incarceration is perhaps the most fundamental protection guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, and that guarantee extends to all of us regardless of immigration status,” said Benjamin Casper, staff attorney at the ACLU of Minnesota. “This decision violates that basic principle.”
For Zack Albun, legal director of the refugee and immigrant program at Advocates for Human Rights, the judges’ decision “erodes important international human rights and constitutional protections against prolonged arbitrary detention.”
Banyee still has further proceedings ahead, but it is uncertain whether it will receive a favorable ruling.
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