Appeals court rejects Trump mandatory detention policy for immigrants

The 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled that a federal policy requiring the detention of all illegal immigrants without the possibility of release was illegal. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last summer released guidance to all its employees mandating that all illegal immigrants they encountered be detained without the possibility of release on bond, according to the documents posted by the Immigration Policy Tracking Project. Just days later, U.S. Customs and Border Protection adopted a similar policy. The legality of the order has been hotly contested across the federal court system, with some judges ordering the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to release individual plaintiffs in certain cases.

So does this latest appeals court decision settle the matter? Tuesday’s decision from the 2nd Circuit further complicates an already convoluted legal dilemma. Both the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals and the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals have ruled that the Trump administration has broad authority to detain illegal immigrants without releasing them on bond, even if they don’t have a criminal record. Federal law requires that all individuals who are in the country illegally be detained until a determination about their eligibility to remain in the United States is made, and they are either permitted to stay or removed altogether.

Dig deeper: Read my report in Compassion about a court order granting refugees in the United States protection from removal—and how some experts say it misread federal immigration law.