ICE’s detention policy won at the 5th Circuit. Then judges found another way to reject it.
When the federal appeals court in February Approves ICE’s unprecedented policy The Trump administration celebrated its decision to detain without bond thousands of immigrants with deep roots in the United States as a landmark victory.
February 6 decision The decision was made by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in response to an overwhelming rejection of ICE’s new detention policy by federal district courts across the country. And since the 5th Circuit’s rulings are binding on judges in Texas, where a significant number of ICE detainees are held, the ruling appeared poised to reverse course.
What has happened since then tells a more complex story.
Bound by the appeals court’s decision, the justices continued to overwhelmingly reject ICE’s detention policy. Rather than labeling the policy a violation of the law (an interpretation taken off the table by the 5th Circuit decision), these justices concluded: ICE violated detainees’ constitutional due process rightsan apparent violation that the appellate court did not address.
As a result, judges in Texas and Louisiana have ordered bail hearings or the release of ICE detainees on due process grounds more than 1,200 times since the appeals court’s decision, according to POLITICO’s analysis.
This accounts for nearly 60 percent of all immigration detention decisions in the 5th Circuit since the Feb. 6 decision. The 5th Circuit is now considering whether ICE detainees subject to ICE’s “mandatory detention” policy are owed due process, as district court judges firmly said.
It’s an indication that the Trump administration’s aggressive departure from longstanding ICE detention practices is testing more than just interpretations of complex and sometimes contradictory federal immigration laws; some justices see this as testing the Constitution itself.
Management to have He has fared better in the 5th Circuit since the February ruling, winning nearly a third of detention warrants compared to less than 10 percent previously. A significant part of this improvement can be attributed to a few judges who rejected the “due process” alternative that their colleagues relied on.
They include Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge Leon Schydlower, who has denied petitions for release from detention more than 150 times since the 5th Circuit’s decision, and Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr., who has ruled similarly more than 60 times since then. It is located.
But the vast majority of decisions by judges appointed by every president since Ronald Reagan still go against the administration.
ICE detentions across the country rose rapidly Since the Trump administration adopted a new immigration enforcement policy last July, it has argued that the government should detain almost anyone ICE wants to deport. While previous administrations applied “mandatory detention” primarily to new border crossers, the Trump administration has expanded the practice to treat people encountered anywhere in the country as if they had just crossed the border, even if they had been living in the United States for decades.
This policy change has flooded the courts with urgent lawsuits from ICE detainees who say the administration’s new approach is illegal. And the justices, including a majority of Trump appointees, agree. POLITICO followed More than 15,100 decisions More than 13,300 of these cases have been identified ICE illegally detained people without bond.
The 5th Circuit, which covers Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, is responsible for about one-fifth of ICE detention orders in the past 11 months, according to POLITICO’s tracking. After the 5th Circuit panel ruled 2-1 in favor of the administration, a panel 8th Circuit Court of AppealsThe agency that oversees courts in the Midwest, including Minnesota, followed suit in March. But since then three appeals courtsOthers, including those who oversee Florida, New York and Ohio, have rejected the administration’s approach, creating a divide that has put the issue on the path to the Supreme Court.
The trend in the 5th Circuit is as follows: is starting to appear And on the 8th Circuit: After the appeals court blocked judges from dismissing ICE arrests on legal grounds, some judges there transition to the same due process logic Like their counterparts in the South, in a few dozen cases so far.
When asked about the rationale for the judicial process and whether it exceeded the administration’s expectation of a change in momentum after the 5th circuit decision, the Department of Justice renewed its attacks on judges.
“Despite the ongoing efforts of activist judges seeking to thwart the president’s agenda, the Department of Justice is committed to defending the immigration laws passed by Congress and working with our counterparts at DHS to deport illegal aliens to keep the American people safe,” department spokeswoman Natalie Baldassare said.
The Texas-based justices, who had previously ruled against the administration’s policy on legal grounds, acknowledged they were bound by the 5th Circuit’s decision but repeatedly emphasized that the ruling “does not change the outcome of this case from a procedural due process perspective.” In hundreds of cases, these judges emphasized that the decision “has no bearing” on whether the applicant was “detained in violation of his constitutional right to due process.”
Even before the 5th Circuit ruled, the due process rationale had been endorsed by at least two Texas-based judges, Clinton appointee David Briones and George W. Bush appointee Kathleen Cardone. Within three weeks of the chamber’s decision, eight more judges adopted this approach, and decisions on this basis have increased rapidly since then.
Nineteen of the 51 federal judges who decide immigration detention cases in the Fifth Circuit have used this strategy, but just four of the judges in the Western District of Texas are responsible for more than half of these decisions: Clinton appointed Orlando Garcia and Fred Biery, and George W. Bush appointed Xavier Rodriguez and Cardone.
Use the table below to explore the decisions for yourself. Search for decisions within the 5th Circuit determining that a due process violation occurred, which will show all similar decisions before and after the 5th Circuit decision. Or type in the name of one of the jurors mentioned above to see how their decisions have changed over time.
And check POLITICO tracks immigration detention orders Updated weekly.
