A federal appeals court ruled that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will not be able to keep migrants detained for more than 90 days without granting them the opportunity to request a bail hearing to regain their freedom.
The ruling was issued July 2 by a divided panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The measure will have an impact on Texas and Louisianawhere that court has jurisdiction.
At the hearing, a judge may evaluate whether it is appropriate to release the detained migrant while the immigration process continues.
The decision represents a judicial setback for the immigration policy promoted by the administration of President Donald Trump and could benefit thousands of detained migrants.
The ruling clarifies an aspect that had been left pending after a February ruling issued by another panel of the same court, which supported the Trump administration’s interpretation of a federal immigration law that allows mandatory detention of certain foreigners.
However, that decision did not resolve whether the United States Constitution requires that such people have access to request his release on bail.
The ruling obtained two votes to one. Judge Leslie Southwick wrote that the United States Constitution has protected, since 2001, the fundamental rights of all people who are within the United States, regardless of their immigration status, through the Fifth Amendment.
Judge James Graves supported the resolution, while Judge Cory Wilson issued a dissenting vote, considering that the decision reduces the authority that Congress has over immigration policy and that Supreme Court jurisprudence does not require the Government to grant bail hearings in these cases.
The litigation began over a reinterpretation of immigration law adopted by the Department of Homeland Security in 2025. For decades, mandatory detention without bail primarily applied to people detained upon entering the United States or shortly after crossing the border. However, the Trump administration expanded that interpretation.
Later, the Department of Justice’s Board of Immigration Appeals adopted the same criteria, allowing immigration judges order mandatory detentions without the possibility of requesting release on bail.
The judges They did not define how these hearings should be held nor what criteria will be applied to decide if a person can be released.
The Department of Homeland Security expressed its disagreement with the ruling. In turn, the Trump administration has already asked the Supreme Court to review another case related to the mandatory detention policy, so That court is expected to define the scope of the arrests and the constitutional protections applicable to migrants facing deportation proceedings.