Free Republic

Agreement is test for national detainer authority.More than a dozen Florida sheriffs announced a deal Wednesday that will allow them to hold illegal immigrants wanted by the federal government for deportation, in what’s likely to be a key test case for cities and countries eager to cooperate but worried about legal problems associated with helping the Trump administration. Known as the Basic Ordering Agreement, the deal struck between 17 Florida sheriffs and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would allow local authorities to hold illegal immigrants even beyond the time they normally would have to be released based on state or...

A federal judge has ordered the government to give bond hearings in preparation for releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants from Iraq back into the community, saying the Constitution protects them from indefinite detention here in the U.S. Judge Mark A Goldsmith, an Obama appointee to the bench, had earlier halted deportations for nearly 300 Iraqis, saying that although they’d long been ordered removed, conditions on the ground have changed and they deserved new hearings.His latest ruling Tuesday evening goes further, certifying some of the Iraqis as a class-action lawsuit and saying most of them should be “allowed to return to...