The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the U.S. ruled this Thursday that the Trump administration cannot deny immigrants detained inside the country the opportunity to request a bail hearing, in a decision that represents another judicial setback for the government's immigration policy.
According to Associated Press, the decision was made by a vote of two in favor and one against by the court based in San Francisco.
The ruling deepens the growing divide among federal appeals circuits regarding the legality of mandatory detention without judicial review.
The ruling and its arguments
The majority opinion was written by Judge Daniel Bress, appointed by President Donald Trump himself; and supported by Judge M. Margaret McKeown, designated by President Bill Clinton.
Bress acknowledged in his text that the legal provisions in dispute are complex, but he concluded that historical practice should prevail
"Although no interpretation of the complex and interrelated textual provisions in question is free from certain flaws, the historical interpretation of the statute is the most accurate."
The court determined that the migrants arrested within the country are protected by the section of the code that allows for bail hearings, and not by the mandatory detention provision that the government has historically invoked for those attempting to cross the border.
The judge Carlos Bea, appointed by George W. Bush, issued a dissenting opinion, arguing that an amendment passed by Congress in 1996 does support the Trump administration's interpretation.
The questioned policy and its origin
The contested measure stems from a memorandum signed in July 2025 by Todd M. Lyons, the acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which ordered that all migrants who entered without authorization be treated as subject to mandatory detention, regardless of how long they had been living in the country.
This directive reversed decades of immigration practice where mandatory detention was reserved for those who had just crossed the border or had serious criminal records.
The measure sparked a flood of lawsuits: approximately 30,000 petitions for habeas corpus were filed by migrants seeking their release, and over 90% of the federal judges who reviewed them rejected the government's position.
The DHS rejects the ruling and announces an appeal
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responded strongly to Thursday's ruling, announcing that it will continue to defend its position before higher courts.
In a statement sent to Associated Press, the agency asserted that "it strongly disagrees with the Ninth Circuit panel and stands by its legal position regarding mandatory detention."
“President Donald Trump and Secretary Mullin are enforcing the law as it was originally written to keep the United States safe,” noted the DHS statement.
The government maintains that Congress amended immigration law in 1996 to allow mandatory detention beyond the border, and that previous administrations simply did not enforce that provision.
Division between circuits and path to the Supreme Court
The Ninth Circuit's ruling widens the gap between federal courts: the Fifth Circuit, based in New Orleans, and the Eighth Circuit, in St. Louis, have endorsed Trump's mandatory detention policy, while the Second, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits have rejected it.
This division makes the intervention of the highest court almost inevitable.
The government has already requested that the Supreme Court examine the issue, and last June, the high court agreed to review a related case regarding whether the government can keep migrants in prolonged detention without a bail hearing.
The impact of these policies has been particularly severe for the Cuban community: the detentions of Cubans by ICE increased by 463% since October 2024; with 1,152 Cubans arrested by January 2026, many of whom were holders of form I-220A and detained without the possibility of requesting bail.
By mid-2026, more than 65,000 people were in ICE custody, a figure that represents a 9% increase compared to April of the same year, according to data from the immigration monitoring report.
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