Federal Judge Throws Out Immigration Board’s Ruling Backing Trump’s Detention Policy

A federal judge in California on Feb. 18 threw out an administrative board’s decision backing the Trump administration’s use of mandatory detention for illegal immigrants arrested in nationwide enforcement operations.

U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes in Riverside, California, vacated the Board of Immigration Appeals’ decision after finding that the federal government failed to comply with her earlier order declaring unlawful the underlying policy denying detainees the chance to seek release on bond.

Federal immigration law stipulates that mandatory detention applies to “applicants for admission” during case proceedings. It has traditionally been limited to individuals arriving at borders.

The Trump administration broadened the policy to include illegal immigrants already inside the United States. The Board of Immigration Appeals, which operates under the Department of Justice, confirmed the change. Immigration judges subsequently enforced the new policy.

Sykes’s initial December 2025 ruling declared the policy unlawful, but stopped short of vacating the board’s decision. In her Feb. 18 ruling, she said it was clear that further relief was needed after Chief Immigration Judge Teresa Riley issued guidance instructing her colleagues that they are not bound by Sykes’s ruling and that they should continue following the board’s decision.

Sykes accused the administration of trying to continue its “campaign of illegal action” by refusing bond hearings despite her prior ruling.

“Respondents have far crossed the boundaries of constitutional conduct,” Sykes wrote. “Somehow, even after the judicial declaration of law that the DHS was misguided in its act of legal interpretation that nullified portions of a congressionally enacted statute, Respondents still insist they can continue their campaign of illegal action.”

Niels Frenzen, a University of Southern California law professor representing the plaintiffs, said the ruling means that the board’s decision can no longer be used by immigration judges to deny bond hearings.

“We hope that DHS and the immigration courts will now comply with the court’s orders to provide bond hearings to the thousands of noncitizens who have been arrested,” he said in a statement.

Sykes also criticized the DHS for repeatedly suggesting that operations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were limited to targeting illegal immigrants who were the “worst of the worst.”

“Maybe that phrase merely mirrors the severity and ill-natured conduct by the government,” Sykes wrote. “Even though these press releases might contain an inkling of truth, they ignore a greater, more dire reality.”

The Epoch Times reached out to the DHS, the Justice Department, and the White House for comment, but did not receive any responses by publication time.

A federal appeals court on Feb. 6 sided with the Trump administration. In a 2–1 decision, the New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed lower court rulings that had granted habeas petitions to two Mexican nationals. The panel determined that such individuals qualify as “applicants for admission” under federal immigration law, subjecting them to mandatory detention.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi praised the Feb. 6 ruling in a post on X.

“The Fifth Circuit just held illegal aliens can rightfully be detained without bond,” she wrote. “A significant blow against activist judges who have been undermining our efforts to make America safe again at every turn.”

Reuters contributed to this report