On March 19, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned an appeals court decision that eviscerated enforcement of a 1996 federal statute that requires the detention of aliens convicted of serious crimes while they contest the government’s efforts to deport them. The decision was a victory for WLF, which (on behalf of a group of 10 Members of Congress) filed a brief urging reversal. The Court agreed with WLF that the mandatory-detention statute, 8 U.S.C. § 1226(c), applies even if immigration officials do not manage to take custody immediately following the alien’s release from criminal incarceration. The Court held that Congress reasonably concluded that unless criminal aliens are detained while they await removal, there exists too great a danger that they will abscond and/or commit new felonies. To emphasize the danger of recidivism, WLF’s brief noted that one of the six criminal aliens released by order of the lower courts was later convicted of first-degree murder.