A panel of appeals court judges handed the Trump administration a major legal victory on Wednesday in its quest to detain large swaths of immigrants living in the country illegally, saying that people who entered the United States without inspection and admission can be detained without bond.
The 2-1 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit marks the second time that a federal appellate court has sided with the administration on the issue, even as hundreds of lower court judges across the country have taken the opposite view. The conservative Fifth Circuit issued a similar ruling earlier this year.
Wednesday’s ruling could impact more than 1,000 immigration detention cases in Minnesota alone, according to a source in the U.S. Attorney’s office in that state. The Eighth Circuit also oversees six other states stretching from North Dakota to Arkansas.
The case involved a man named Joaquin Herrera Avila, a citizen of Mexico who was apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security in Minneapolis last August. DHS detained him without bond and brought removal proceedings against him.
His lawyers filed a petition of habeas corpus seeking his release, and the U.S. District Court in Minnesota granted the request. Wednesday’s decision reversed the lower court’s ruling.
The majority opinion was drafted by Judge Bobby Shepherd, a George W. Bush appointee, and joined by Judge L. Steven Grasz, a Trump appointee. Judge Ralph R. Erickson, who was appointed during President Trump’s first term, dissented.
“Except for a single DUI, for nearly 20 years, Joaquin Herrera Avila had been living a law-abiding life in the United States,” Erickson wrote. “For the past 29 years, Avila would have been entitled to a bond hearing during his removal proceedings. The court now holds that Avila—and millions of others—are subject to mandatory detention.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi lauded the ruling in a post on X.
“MASSIVE COURT VICTORY against activist judges and for President Trump’s law and order agenda!” she wrote. “The Eighth Circuit has held that illegal aliens can be detained without bond — following a similar ruling from the Fifth Circuit last month. The law is very clear, but Democrats and activist judges haven’t wanted to enforce it. This administration WILL.”
In the past, undocumented immigrants who lived in the U.S. for years had typically been eligible for bond hearings where they could ask an immigration judge to let them fight their deportation cases without remaining detained.
But the Trump administration has argued that anyone who entered the U.S. illegally is subject to mandatory deportation, unless immigration authorities grant them parole on humanitarian or public interest grounds.
Last fall, a Justice Department-run immigration court made a sweeping determination that the government could essentially detain a large swath of immigrants indefinitely while their removal proceedings are pending.
Since then, federal courts across the United States have been crushed by a tidal wave of cases filed by immigrants challenging their detention. In most cases, U.S. District Courts have sided with the immigrants and ruled against the government. According to a tally from Politico, more than 400 judges have ruled against the government in more than 5,000 cases.
The federal court district in Minnesota, where the case taken up by the Eighth Circuit originated, has had an especially challenging time handling immigration detention cases, in part due to staffing shortfalls. Attorneys from other units of the federal government, including military Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG) officers and ICE lawyers, have been shifted to assist the Justice Department in Minnesota.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Daniel Rosen said in a court filing earlier this year that his staff were facing “an enormous burden.”
“This office has been forced to shift its already limited resources from other pressing and important priorities,” Rosen wrote. “Paralegals are continuously working overtime. Lawyers are continuously working overtime.”