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An appeals court on Friday upheld Trump’s mass detention policy, allowing illegal immigrants to be held without bond.
The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can legally deny bond hearings to immigrants detained nationwide under the Constitution and federal immigration law.
Attorney General Pam Bondi responded to the decision, saying the Department of Justice (DOJ) had “scored yet another important legal victory” in support of President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda.
“The Fifth Circuit recently held that illegal aliens can be properly held without bond — a significant blow to activist judges who have undermined our efforts to make America safe and secure at all times,” he wrote in X. “Thank you to Ben Hayes who argued this case, Brett Shumate and the @DOJCivil Division. We will continue to defend President Trump’s national court.”
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An appeals court upheld the Department of Homeland Security’s authority to detain illegal aliens without bond hearings, in what Attorney General Pam Bondi called a major legal victory for the Trump administration. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
District Judge Edith H. Jones wrote in the majority opinion that “unauthorized aliens detained anywhere in the United States are not eligible for release on bond, regardless of how long they have resided within the United States.”
Many illegal immigrants who had not previously been arrested at the border had the opportunity to request a bond hearing as their cases progressed, and those without a criminal history who were not considered a flight risk were often granted bonds.
“Just because previous Administrations decided to use less than their full enforcement authority under” the law “doesn’t mean they didn’t have the authority to do more,” Jones wrote.
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The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that federal law allows illegal immigrants to be held without bond, a decision that was praised by Attorney General Pam Bondi. (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
Writing in dissent, District Judge Dana M. Douglas said members of Congress who passed the Immigration and Nationality Act nearly 30 years ago “would be surprised to learn that they also needed to incarcerate two million people.”
Douglas noted that some of the people arrested were “spouses, mothers, fathers and grandparents of American citizens.”
The decision stems from two separate lawsuits filed last year against the Trump administration, both of which involved Mexican nationals who had lived in the US for more than a decade and were not considered flight risks, according to their lawyers.
The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that federal law allows the Department of Homeland Security to deny bond hearings to illegal immigration detainees across the country, consistent with Trump’s executive order policy. (@ICE by X)
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Although they have no criminal records, both were sentenced for months last year before a Texas lower court granted them bond last October.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
