New York Gov. Kathy Hochul pardoned a noncitizen with a criminal conviction whose immigration-related appeal was scheduled to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, ending the case a month before the oral argument.
The high court formally dismissed the case, Genalo v. Keisy G.M., on Sept. 11.
U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer, and counsel for the respondent—whose full name is Keisy Guerrero Mariano—Cecillia Wang of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, filed a joint stipulation to dismiss with the court. Hours later, the court dismissed the case.
The case, which was about whether the federal government can hold immigrants convicted of serious criminal offenses for months without holding a bond hearing, was scheduled for oral argument on Oct. 13.
Sauer said in a separate filing that the issues raised by the case remain outstanding, and that the government will seek out new cases that would “still allow this Court to resolve the questions presented during October Term 2026.”
The pardon issued on Aug. 28 by Hochul, a Democrat, erased the aggravated felony conviction that made Mariano deportable, so he was no longer subject to mandatory detention, and the live controversy the Trump administration wanted the justices to decide disappeared.
According to the government’s petition, Mariano, a Dominican citizen and lawful permanent resident of the United States since 2011, pled guilty to second-degree assault in a New York state court in 2015 and was sentenced to two years in prison. He was released early from prison after 19 months for good behavior.
In October 2020, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) arrested him at his home in the Bronx, New York. The agency said under federal law, his assault conviction was considered to be a conviction for an aggravated—meaning serious—felony-level offense, which rendered him deportable. DHS also found that his conviction made him subject to mandatory detention under Section 1226(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Mariano argued he would face torture, in this case violence from private actors, if returned to his homeland. Immigration judges rejected that claim and ordered him deported. He appealed, the petition said.
Mariano was held in immigration detention for about 21 months with no bond hearing. His attorneys argued that holding someone that long without letting a judge decide whether he is a danger to the public or a flight risk violates due process.
In November 2021, a federal district judge denied his petition seeking release, finding the government had not unreasonably delayed the case. Mariano was released in July 2022 as a result of a nationwide injunction that freed detainees because of COVID-19 risk factors in detention facilities.
In May 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that once mandatory detention under Section 1226(c) becomes unreasonably prolonged, constitutional guarantees of due process require a bond hearing. At that point, the government must prove, by clear and convincing evidence, that the detainee is a flight risk or a danger to the public.
The government appealed to the Supreme Court in January, and the justices granted the government’s petition in June.
The dismissal leaves the Second Circuit’s rule in place in New York, Connecticut, and Vermont. Until the government finds another case, DHS in that circuit must give prolonged Section 1226(c) detainees a bond hearing.
This article by Matthew Vadum appeared Sept. 11, 2026, in The Epoch Times.
Photo: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, in an undated photo from the governor’s website.