Two Federal Courts Block Trump Administration Immigration Detention Policy

Two federal appeals courts have ruled against a Donald Trump administration policy that denied bail hearings to immigrant detainees arrested within the U.S. interior. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the government to provide bond hearings for detainees across Colorado, Utah, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Kansas, and New Mexico, restoring a 30-year legal interpretation. This ruling specifically impacts hundreds of individuals held at the Geo detention center in Aurora, Colorado.

Separately, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 2-1 decision that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot hold non-citizens residing in the U.S. for more than 90 days without a bond hearing. The court found that requiring individualized justification for continued detention is necessary to satisfy the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. This ruling affects thousands of detainees in states such as Texas and Louisiana and stems from a case involving three men who had lived in the U.S. for over a decade.

Both courts rejected a U.S. Department of Homeland Security reinterpretation of federal law that classified interior residents as applicants for admission subject to mandatory detention. While the Department of Homeland Security stated it strongly disagrees with the rulings, it has sought intervention from the Supreme Court of the United States to resolve the statutory dispute. The Supreme Court has agreed to examine the issue of bond hearings in 2027.