The Biden administration told a D.C. federal judge that no constitutional right to counsel exists for detained immigrants in bond proceedings as it tries to undercut what remains of a lawsuit alleging several immigration detention centers are hindering attorney access.

Attorneys with the U.S. Department of Justice, which is defending the federal government against the Southern Poverty Law Center's due process lawsuit, tried to answer a lingering question about whether one of three remaining claims in the suit can proceed in a supplemental brief filed Wednesday.

That claim pertains to SPLC's allegation that confinement conditions at Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities are violating "the right to a full and fair hearing" under the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. That claim's survival essentially boils down to whether detained immigrants are constitutionally entitled to counsel in bond proceedings, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said in a March opinion ordering supplemental briefing on the matter.

The Justice Department said Wednesday that no such right exists, and urged the court to dismiss the claim.

"Plaintiff's clients are lawfully detained, and there is no constitutional right to counsel in civil proceedings. Congress has only provided a statutory right to counsel in removal proceedings. Therefore, the absence of counsel in a custody proceeding does not violate the right to a full and fair hearing because it exceeds the minimum due-process requirement that an alien receive 'some form of meaningful or fair hearing,' the brief said.

Judge Kollar-Kotelly had declined to dismiss the procedural due process claim back in March, saying whether the federal government must refrain from all actions severely impacting existing attorney-client relationships in bond proceedings is "fraught."

While the Ninth and Sixth Circuits have held there is some right to counsel as a matter of due process in certain immigration proceedings, some district courts have ruled that there is no due process right to appointed counsel, Judge Kollar-Kotelly had noted.

The judge held that claim in abeyance and asked the parties to elaborate on the impact of U.S. Supreme Court precedent, including its decision in Mathews v. Eldridge, which established a three-prong test to determine due process requirements.

The Biden administration said the requirements laid out in Mathews aren't met here. For one thing, SPLC has not established that any of its clients have been subjected to unlawful or prolonged detention that would run afoul of due process, the brief said.

At most, SPLC's clients will be denied bond and face ongoing but legal detention until their removal proceedings conclude, the Justice Department said. The cases that have held detained immigrants have a right to counsel were for deportation hearings, which the brief noted is "a most serious" penalty.

Additionally, bond hearings have a lower evidentiary threshold and numerous avenues for independent review by requesting a subsequent bond hearing, seeking review from the Board of Immigration Appeals or pursuing mandamus relief in a U.S. district court if they believe their detention is unconstitutional, the brief said.

"Given the Government's interest in maintaining the orderly management of detention facilities, and the sufficient procedures in place to ensure a full and fair hearing and prevent erroneous custody determinations in bond hearings, it cannot be said that procedural due process requires all instrumentalities and agents of the federal government to forgo any actions that severely impact a pre-existing attorney-client relationship in a bond proceeding under Mathews," the DOJ said.

SPLC's original 2018 complaint alleged that detention conditions in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in Louisiana and Georgia run by private prison giants GEO Group and CoreCivic were preventing their detainee clients from accessing courts and legal services of its constituent organization, the Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative.

SPLC, which offers free legal services related to bond, parole and deportation proceedings, said in a 2019 amended complaint that the federal government failed to make certain the facilities complied with ICE's national detention standards requiring immigration prisons to ensure that their detainees have access to bilingual staff or professional interpretation services.

Judge Kollar-Kotelly has already dismissed several of the claims in the suit, including due process claims over access to counsel and access to courts, and a claim stemming from allegations that the government's failure to enforce the national detention standards violated the Administrative Procedure Act.

SPLC's supplemental brief on the matter is due on April 19.

Counsel for SPLC did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday, while the DOJ likewise did not immediately respond to a press inquiry.

SPLC is represented in-house by Sarah M. Rich, Stephanie M. Alvarez-Jones and Emily B. Lubin, and John T. Bergin, William E. Dorris, Susan W. Pangborn and Jeffrey Fisher of Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP.

The U.S. is represented by Michael Celone, Ruth Ann Mueller, Kevin Hirst, Richard Ingebretsen and David Byerley of the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Immigration Litigation.

The case is SPLC v. DHS et al., case number 1:18-cv-00760, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

--Additional reporting by Rae Ann Varona. Editing by Patrick Reagan.