WASHINGTON — More than 30 years in Washington. Married. Two children who are U.S. citizens. No claim from the government that he was dangerous or would flee. None of it bought Oscar Enrique Lopez Garcia so much as a hearing when ICE agents took him on his way to work last October.
On Thursday, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that was illegal — and warned that the Trump administration’s reading of immigration law would mean Congress had quietly ordered “the single largest mass detention of human beings in our nation’s history.”
The 2-1 decision in Lopez Garcia v. Guadian is the administration’s ninth consecutive loss in the federal appeals courts since the 8th Circuit sided with it in March. It also completes the map. All 11 numbered circuits have now answered whether ICE can jail longtime residents without bond simply because they entered the country without inspection, however long ago. Nine said no. Two said yes.
In Houston, the answer is no. In Baltimore, it is yes. Until …