Immigration & Naturalization Service v. National Center for Immigrants' Rights, Inc.

Background

The case involves immigrants detained while their right to remain in the United States is decided and a regulation that makes a “no-work” condition the default on bonds. Before 1983 bond conditions sometimes barred work at the agency’s discretion. The Attorney General changed the rule in 1983 to require a no-work condition unless a local official decided work was appropriate. Several people and advocacy groups sued, arguing the rule exceeded the Attorney General’s authority, and lower courts issued and then narrowed injunctions before the dispute reached this Court.

Reasoning

The Court framed a narrow question: whether the rule is facially invalid under the statute. The Justices read the regulation to apply only to unauthorized work, relying on the regulation’s title, the agency’s consistent interpretation, rulemaking comments, and internal instructions. The Court held that preventing unauthorized employment fits within the immigration laws’ concern for protecting jobs and that the rule allows individualized decisions because agency instructions, an initial informal check of work status, procedures to seek work authorization, and administrative and judicial review are available.

Real world impact

The decision lets immigration authorities impose bond conditions barring unauthorized employment for detained immigrants who lack work authorization, provided officials assess each person’s status individually. The Court did not address the plaintiffs’ separate constitutional claims and limited its ruling to the regulation as interpreted; it did not rule on broader versions of a blanket no-work ban.