Appeals Court Says Trump Admin Cannot Detain Noncitizens Without Bond Hearings

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on July 30 said the Trump administration lacks the authority to detain illegal immigrants without bond hearings, deepening a circuit split.

A split Ninth Circuit panel outlined differing positions on the matter. The majority, upholding a decision in favor of detained illegal immigrants in Washington state, said that federal law requiring mandatory detention of illegal immigrants has historically only applied to those seeking to enter the country at a border, even after updated language in 1996 amendments to immigration law.

“The implication of the government’s position is that Congress in 1996 made a major change to the immigration laws by subjecting millions of unadmitted aliens present in the United States to mandatory detention, but that this change then went unnoticed and unheeded, with the Executive Branch for the next three decades violating Congress’s assertedly unambiguous mandatory detention directive by treating these aliens as subject to release on bond,” Circuit Judge Daniel Bress wrote for the majority.

The law in question says that “in the case of an alien who is an applicant for admission, if the examining immigration officer determines that an alien seeking admission is not clearly and beyond a doubt entitled to be admitted, the alien shall be detained.” It says that an “alien present in the United States who has not been admitted … shall be deemed for purposes of this chapter an applicant for admission.”

The Trump administration in mid-2025 issued guidance stating that illegal immigrants inside the United States are also subject to mandatory detention.

That prompted a slew of lawsuits.

So far, two circuit courts have ruled for the administration, while four others have sided with legal challengers.

In a dissent on Thursday, Circuit Judge Carlos Bea said that both the law and the purpose of the statute “establish that the government may detain without bond aliens present without admission.” There are no statutory interpretations that undermine that conclusion, he said.

The ruling came about a month after the Department of Justice requested the Supreme Court in a separate case to rule that the administration has the authority to detain illegal immigrants inside the country without bond hearings.

The legal question is “whether aliens present in the United States after an illegal entry must be detained while their removal proceedings unfold,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote to the court. He said that federal law “mandates detention for such aliens pending their removal proceedings, and there is no due-process problem with that result.”