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The Supreme Court ruled in a 7-2 decision that U.S. immigration authorities cannot indefinitely detain illegal aliens convicted of crimes in this country who have completed their prison sentences.

The order was in response to court challenges and conflicting decisions by separate U.S. courts of appeal involving two Cubans, Sergio Suarez Martinez and Daniel Benitez, among 920 immigrants who came to the U.S. in June 1980 as part of the “Mariel boatlift”. Later denied lawful permanent residence because of criminal conviction in the United States, Daniel Benitez has remained in custody since 1993 and Sergio Martinez since 2000.

Both of the men completed their sentences in 2001 but have remained as detainees within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under a 1996 law tightening restrictions on criminal aliens. There are nearly 2,300 illegal aliens who have completed their U.S. sentences on a variety of criminal charges being detained by U.S. immigration authorities.

According to Justice Antonin Scalia, writing in the majority opinion, “The government fears that the security of our borders will be compromised if it must release into the country inadmissible aliens who cannot be removed,” adding that, “if that is so, Congress can attend to it.” The Justice Department echoed Justice Sandra Day O''Connor''s prediction of chaos, warning thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of state criminal sentences would be unraveled.

The ruling means the federal government must release, according to one count, about 1,200 criminal aliens into society. The two Mariel exiles committed crimes in the U.S. including assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, armed robbery, aggravated battery, carrying a concealed weapon and attempted oral copulation by force, in addition to other crimes.