Another federal appeals court rejects ICE's mandatory detention policy
Source: Politico
05/06/2026 06:09 PM EDT
An Atlanta-based federal appeals court became the latest to reject ICE’s efforts to lock up — without an opportunity for bond — the vast majority of people the Trump administration is seeking to deport.
A divided three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals said ICE’s push violated decades-old immigration laws intended to require the detention of recent border-crossers. But last year, ICE reinterpreted that law to apply to virtually anyone without lawful status, even if they have lived in the country for decades without incident.
“Simply put, the language that Congress has chosen to use does not grant to the Executive unfettered authority to detain, without the possibility of bond, every unadmitted alien present in the country,” wrote Judge Stanley Marcus, a Clinton appointee, who was joined by Judge Robin Rosenbaum, an Obama appointee. “Nowhere in the text, structure, or history of [federal immigration law] does that reading find steady footing.”
The administration’s interpretation, they note, would subject millions of people — many with jobs, U.S. citizen children and spouses, no criminal records and unbroken attendance at immigration proceedings — to mandatory mass detention without bond. No prior administration believed it had this authority, they noted. Judge Barbara Lagoa, a Trump appointee, dissented from the panel’s decision.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/06/appeals-court-mandatory-detention-ice-ruling-00909352
Link to ORDER (PDF) - https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/202514065.pdf
This is the 3rd appellate court that has ruled this way in the past month.
REFERENCES
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143657786
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143661135
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