Politics

A Federal Court Ruled ICE Cannot Hold Immigrants More Than 90 Days Without a Hearing

By Mike Harper · July 6, 2026

Three men were pulled over during routine traffic stops in Texas. All three had lived in the United States for at least 14 years. All three had jobs. All three have American citizen children. All three were handed over to ICE and detained — indefinitely — without any opportunity to appear before a judge.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 on Thursday that the government cannot hold immigrants for more than 90 days without providing them a bond hearing before an immigration judge. The ruling came from the most conservative federal appeals court in the country — and it rejected the Trump administration’s central legal theory for its mass detention policy.

Judge Leslie Southwick, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote the majority opinion.

“It is part of the historic majesty of this long-ago founding charter that it makes no exceptions in providing basic rights to those within our boundaries, including a right to be heard when personal liberty is taken.”

The administration’s legal argument was novel and aggressive: it claimed that immigrants already living in the United States — not just people arriving at the border — should be classified as “applicants for admission” subject to mandatory detention with no right to a bond hearing. The Board of Immigration Appeals adopted that interpretation last September. Immigration judges across the country began ordering mandatory detention. Thousands of people were held without hearings.

The Fifth Circuit said that goes too far. The Constitution’s due process protections apply to everyone within US borders — including non-citizens, including people facing deportation, including the three fathers whose cases prompted the lawsuit.

A bond hearing is not automatic release. The immigration judge evaluates whether the person poses a danger or a flight risk. The government can argue for continued detention. But the detained person gets to be heard — which is the part the administration’s policy eliminated.

Judge Cory Wilson, a Trump appointee, dissented, arguing that the immigrants are “not entitled to challenge their detention” under current immigration law. The administration said it disagrees with the ruling and remains “confident in its legal position.” It has already asked the Supreme Court to review a similar decision from another circuit.

The ruling directly affects thousands of ICE detainees in Texas and Louisiana — the states within the Fifth Circuit’s jurisdiction. Its broader significance is the legal precedent it sets: even the court most sympathetic to the administration’s immigration enforcement agenda drew a line at indefinite detention without judicial review.

Rebecca Cassler, an attorney for the immigrants at the American Immigration Council, was direct.

“The due process clause does not allow the government to lock them away indefinitely.”