Hundreds of federal judges have torpedoed Donald Trump’s mass detention of migrants facing deportation, including around two dozen appointed by the president himself, with rulings piling up in courts across America.
After the Trump administration rewrote ICE policy on July 8 to cut off bond hearings for most locked-up immigrants, emergency lawsuits exploded nationwide.
They came from people who’ve spent years, even decades, in the U.S. with clean records while pursuing asylum or other legal status, who were seized at workplaces, courthouses, and routine check-ins.
In more than 700 cases, at least 225 federal judges have found the change to be likely illegal and a due-process violation—including 23 selected by Trump, 79, according to Politico.
Judges across at least 35 states have bristled at the government’s attempt to treat long-time U.S. residents as if they were still “seeking admission,” triggering mandatory detention once reserved for new arrivals, in a reading that breaks with three decades of practice.
Before July 8, most people in deportation proceedings remained free while their cases wound through immigration courts, an executive-branch system that routinely weighed bond.
One judge likened the logic to insisting a movie-theater gatecrasher is still at the door—an interpretation that dozens of courts have rejected as defying common sense.
Joining the chorus blasting the policy, Clinton-appointed U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder wrote on Nov. 21, “The Court is unable to remain current on all new case authority… given the continued onslaught of litigation.”
In Michigan, Trump appointee Hala Jarbou described more than 100 individual petitions landing in her courtroom before another 97 detainees filed a joint case seeking release, illustrating their sheer volume.
And in Idaho, Clinton-appointed U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill wrote that “dozens of district courts across the nation—with more each day—have rejected DHS’s expansion of… mandatory detention,” freeing 17 people seized in an Oct. 19 raid, Politico reported.
Broader relief is now taking shape. Federal judges in Massachusetts and Colorado have certified class actions, while a California judge has approved a nationwide class that could force bond hearings for those held under the July policy, according to Politico’s review.
Appeals courts in the 5th and 8th Circuits are being asked to move quickly. At the same time, the administration has urged slower timetables elsewhere—setting up conflicting clocks and a likely sprint to the Supreme Court.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICE’s parent agency in charge of migration in the U.S., argues it’s enforcing the statute.
“President Trump and Secretary Noem are now enforcing this law as it was actually written to keep America safe,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Politico in a statement.
McLaughlin told the Daily Beast that Trump and Noem were focused on enforcing the law.
“The Board of Immigration Appeals’ recent ruling vindicating DHS on holding aliens without bond was the final nail in the coffin for Biden’s catch and release policies that dangerously unleashed millions of unvetted illegal aliens into American communities—and they used many loopholes to do so,” she said.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
