A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot hold immigrants for more than 90 days without giving them a chance to seek release on bond while deportation proceedings continue. The 2-1 decision from the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is a setback for the Trump administration and could reshape detention rules for thousands of people held in states under the court’s jurisdiction.
The ruling lands now because it draws a line the government cannot cross in cases that have been dragging on in immigration court. It affects detainees in Texas and Louisiana and other states covered by the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where the question of how long ICE can keep someone locked up without a bond hearing has become a live legal fight. Rebecca Cassler said the panel was delighted by the ruling and described the due process issue as one that keeps the government from locking people away indefinitely.
Judge Leslie Southwick wrote for the majority and said the Constitution protects basic rights for people inside U.S. borders, including a right to be heard when personal liberty is taken. He pointed to a 2001 Supreme Court ruling that found due process protections extend to everyone, including two Mexican citizens and one Honduran whose cases were before the court then. The majority said that principle requires a bond opportunity after 90 days, even when federal immigration law treats applicants for admission as subject to mandatory detention while their cases move forward.
Judge Cory Wilson dissented, saying the majority marginalizes the Constitution’s express grant of plenary authority over immigration matters to Congress. That split matters because a different panel of the same court had already been the first in the country to side with the administration’s reading of the statute in February, but that earlier ruling did not answer whether the Fifth Amendment requires an immigration judge to hear a bond request.
The administration still has room to press its case. The Department of Homeland Security said it disagrees with the ruling and remains confident in its legal position on mandatory detention, while last week the administration asked the Supreme Court to review a similar ruling by a different appeals court. The immediate question now is how quickly the new 90-day bond rule will be applied to detainees already held in the Fifth Circuit, and whether the Supreme Court is asked to step in again.
