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[1] (September 8, 2015)

handle is hein.crs/crsmthaafmp0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Legal Sidebar Federal Appeals Court Finds That Probable Cause Is J& J& Required to Hold Aliens Pursuant to Immigration Detainers 09/08/2015 The recent deci sin by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Morales v. Chadbourne could complicate current debates about sanctuary cities, a term which Lna us to describe jurisdictions that decline to honor immigration detainers. An immigar ion iner is a do unt whereby U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requests that another law enforcement agency take certain actions, which can include holding an alien for up to 48 hours after the alien would otherwise have been released so that ICE may assume custody, or notifying ICE prior to releasing or transferring an alien. n r that an alien who shot and killed a woman after being released by San Francisco authorities had been the subject of an immigraQn detainer, which the San Francisco Sheriff decined to o , have prompted some Members of Congress to piQpo _rma I _cDuraea .an d oci h immi&)r io in dainer or otherwise cooperate in immigration enforcement. Overview of the Litigation in Morales The litigation in Morales arose from two instances-one in July 2004 and another in May 2009-in which a U.S. citizen, Ada Morales, was held by local or state officials in Rhode Island pursuant to an immigration detainer. Ms. Morales had been born in Guatemala, but immigrated to the United States in the 1980s and was naturalized in 1995. In the more recent of these two incidents, Ms. Morales was held pursuant to a detainer for 24 hours after she wouId have r on the state criminal charges, so that ICE could investigate her removability (a practice that ICE has sinc aban d). Ms. Morales asserts that she informed state officials she was a citizen, but was not released until ICE confirmed this. An ICE agent allegedly apologized to Ms. Morales upon her release, but told her that icld _h n aaain in the futue. Ms. Morales subsequently filed suit to enjoin various federal and state defendants from holding her pursuant to an immigration detainer in the future. She also sought monetary damages for violations of her Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable seizures, among other things. In response, the federal defendants-who include Mr. Chadbourne-asked the reviewing federal district court to grant them summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity. Determining whether a defendant is entitled to such immunity generally entails a two-part analysis, considering (1) whether the facts alleged show that the defendant's conduct violated a constitutional right, and (2) whether the contours of this right are clearly established under the then-existing law so that a reasonable officer would have known that the conduct was unlawful. There need not be a case directly on point for the contours of a right to be clearly established, but existing precedent must have placed the constitutional or other question beyond debate. The ICE officials' motion for summary judgment was denied by the district court in February 2014. The officials then filed an interlocutory appeal with the First Circuit. (An interlocutory appeal is a pre-trial appeal.) First Circuit's Decision in Morales The First Circuit's decision in Morales reflects the procedural pojstr of the case in that certain facts alleged by the plaintiff are presumed to be true, among other things. Nonetheless, the decision is notable in that it establishes, in a way no prior decision has, the legal authority for the issuance of immigration detainers. It is also the first appellate decision to address the Fourth Amendment issues raised by holds pursuant to immigration detainers (previously, the issue has

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