A federal appeals court ruled against the Trump administration on Tuesday, saying it cannot indefinitely detain most immigrants without providing them access to bond hearings.
The unanimous decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit marks the first loss at the appellate level for President Donald Trump’s shift to mandatory detention. Other appeals courts have sided with the administration, setting up a potential Supreme Court battle over the policy.
At issue is a July memo from Immigration and Customs Enforcement declaring that any immigrant who entered the country without inspection must be detained under the law. The law had been interpreted for nearly three decades as only mandating the detention without bond of immigrants apprehended at the border. This shift has led to the detention of immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for decades and don’t have criminal records.