Lawyers for a Haitian man who has been held by immigration authorities since September for convictions of turnstile jumping in New York City argued before a federal judge on Friday that their client should be entitled to a bond hearing at the six-month mark of his detention.

The proposed class action suit filed on behalf of Augustin Sajous, a 60-year-old permanent resident who has been in the United States since 1972, comes a few months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal immigration statutes do not give U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees the right to a bond hearing, a decision which an immigration judge cited in ruling that Sajous remain locked up.

But lawyers from the New York Civil Liberties Union and Brooklyn Defender Services argue that denying Sajous a bond hearing violates his due process rights, that there should be a sixth-month “bright line” for immigrant detainees to receive bond hearings and that their position is backed by recent case law from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

“The longer that determination goes on, the more concerning it becomes for the court that it looks and feels like criminal detention,” said Andrea Sáenz, a supervising attorney for the immigration practice at Brooklyn Defender Services in oral arguments before U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan of the Southern District of New York.

Appearing for the government in the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Waterman argued that Sajous is not an “outlier” in terms of the length of his detention in an ICE facility in New Jersey, though he could not provide a duration that would be considered the norm when asked by Nathan.

Waterman also argued that the length of Sajous' detention is “not determinative” of whether or not his case raises due process issues and, if a bond hearing is held, the burden should be placed on Sajous to prove that he should be freed, not the government.   

During arguments by Jordan Wells, a staff attorney for the New York Civil Liberties Union who also appeared for Sajous, Nathan questioned why six months should be the time limit for bond hearings for immigrant detainees.

Wells argued that the Supreme Court has previously found that six months is a benchmark for civil commitment and that, under the Patriot Act, detainees held under suspicion that they pose threats to national security are subject to review every six months.

Sajous' lawyers have also filed a writ of habeas corpus on his behalf and have asked Nathan to order a preliminary injunction. Nathan reserved judgment on the motion.