Law Commons^™

Sentenced To Purgatory: The Indefinite Detention Of Mariel Cubans, Yvette M. Mastin

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Indefinite detention of Cuban immigrants is unconstitutional. Immigrants detained in American jails are being treated the same as individuals serving criminal sentences or awaiting disposition of their cases. Congress should, therefore, create a mandatory and uniform system of procedural due process. The system should be modeled after the procedural due process system established by the Kansas Legislature in the Kansas Sexually Violent Predator Act of 1994.  Although the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to rule on the indefinite detention of the Mariel Cubans, lower courts have held that the indefinite detention of Mariel Cubans does not violate the Constitution. Nonetheless, …