NEW YORK _ After 34 months in detention, a change of venue, a dozen appeals or adjournments and two presidential administrations, an undocumented African immigrant with no criminal record may finally get out on bail to plead his case for asylum.
A federal judge Thursday ordered a bond hearing for Adou Kouadio, an undocumented immigrant from the Ivory Coast who has been in federal custody since February 2016
Kouadio claims his political views put his life at risk in the west African nation, and refuge in the U.S. is his only hope of survival.
But his case, which began while former President Barack Obama was in office and continues to languish on President Donald Trump's watch, has pitted due process against national security, and so far, national security has been winning out.
Fifteen months into his detainment, after changing venues from El Paso, Texas, to New York to have better access to his family and an interpreter, Kouadio's asylum petition was denied. Kouadio appealed the decision, but he has had to make his case from behind bars.
But U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled that without the threat of imminent danger from an asylum-seeker with no criminal record, indefinite detainment cannot be justified.
"Petitioner enjoys the right of appeal, and his right to asylum and admission into the United States remains open," Hellerstein wrote in his opinion. "His right to liberty is as valuable to him as it is to any U.S. citizen, and he has a constitutional right to a bail hearing that should no longer be denied to him."
Hellerstein's ruling does nothing more than ask the government to show "clear and convincing evidence" that Kouadio is a flight risk. Hellerstein said a hearing on the subject must be scheduled within two weeks.
