JEFFERSON CITY • In a unanimous decision issued Thursday, the Missouri Supreme Court deemed a state law barring undocumented immigrants from being granted bail to be unconstitutional.

Faustino Lopez-Matias, an undocumented immigrant, was arrested by Linn Creek police in September and charged with the felony of possessing a fraudulent Social Security card.

He’s been held in jail ever since the circuit court denied his request for bail, citing state law that prohibits pretrial release for any defendants believed to be in the United States unlawfully.

Attorneys for Lopez-Mattias argued that lawmakers should never have weighed in on issues handled at the federal level.

“By enacting the statute, the General Assembly has attempted to legislate in the field of immigration and alien registration, that field is already fully occupied by an extensive framework of federal regulation,” said attorney Fawzy Simon.

Attorneys for the state contended that a court could deny bail if the defendant posed a danger to the community, which they argued Lopez-Mattias did, because he was driving without a license, at an excessive speed, before he was arrested.