Supreme Court takes up Trump ICE detention challenge — SkimNews
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- The US Supreme Court agreed Thursday to hear a case challenging the Trump administration's policy requiring undocumented immigrants to remain in detention without a bond hearing while fighting deportation, with arguments expected when the new term opens Monday.
- The Trump administration's July 2025 guidance directed federal immigration authorities to detain undocumented immigrants without bond for the duration of deportation proceedings, which can last years, reversing a decades-old interpretation that allowed release during pending cases.
- A federal appeals court split has emerged: most circuits have ruled immigrants cannot be detained without a bond hearing, but the 5th and 8th US Circuit Courts have found immigrants accused of illegally entering and remaining in the US must remain detained throughout their proceedings.
- The case stems from a 2nd Circuit ruling involving Ricardo Aparecido Barbosa da Cunha, a Brazilian national who entered the US around 2004-2005 and was arrested in September 2025 while driving to work in Massachusetts, initially denied a bond hearing before being released on bond.
- The ACLU, representing the plaintiffs, warned that "millions of noncitizens could be affected" by the government's new interpretation, arguing the administration is trying to deny bond hearings to immigrants apprehended within the US rather than limiting the restriction to those stopped at the border.
- Trump administration attorneys told the Associated Press the circuit split is "disrupting the orderly administration of immigration law" and called the result "an unworkable patchwork of inconsistent immigration enforcement, where aliens present without admission are subject to mandatory detention in some circuits but are entitled to bond hearings and often released in others."
Why it matters: The court's ruling will resolve a circuit split where the same immigrant can be detained without a bond hearing in some states but eligible for release in others, creating one uniform nationwide standard. The ACLU estimates millions of noncitizens could be affected, meaning the outcome determines whether immigrants facing deportation proceedings that can last years will have any meaningful opportunity for pre-trial release.
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