\n<\/p>\n
The U.S. can continue to detain immigrants without bond, an appeals court ruled on Wednesday, handing a victory to the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration. <\/p>\n
The opinion from a panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis overturned a lower court ruling that required that a native of Mexico arrested for lacking legal documents be given a bond hearing before an immigration judge. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s the second appeals court to rule in favor of the administration on this issue. The 5th Circuit in New Orleans ruled last month<\/a> that the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s decision to deny bond hearings to immigrants arrested across the country was consistent with the Constitution and federal immigration law.<\/p>\n Both appeals court opinions counter recent lower court decisions<\/a> across the country that argued the practice is illegal.<\/p>\n In November, a district court decision in California<\/a> granted detained immigrants with no criminal history the opportunity to request a bond hearing and had implications for noncitizens held in detention nationwide.<\/p>\n Under past administrations, most noncitizens<\/a> with no criminal record who were arrested away<\/a> from the border had an opportunity to request a bond hearing while their cases wound through immigration court. Historically, bond was often granted to those without criminal convictions who were not flight risks, and mandatory detention was limited to recent border crossers.<\/p>\n In the case before the 8th Circuit, Joaquin Herrera Avila of Mexico was apprehended in Minneapolis in August 2025 for lacking legal documents authorizing his admission into the United States. The Department of Homeland Security detained Avila without bond and began deportation proceedings. <\/p>\n He filed a petition seeking immediate release or a bond hearing. A federal judge in Minnesota granted the petition, saying the law authorized detention without bond when a person seeking admission is not clearly and beyond a doubt entitled to being admitted. The judge found this was not the case for Avila because he had lived in the country for years without seeking naturalization, asylum or refugee status and thus wasn’t \u201cseeking admission.\u201d<\/p>\n Circuit Court Judge Bobby E. Shepherd wrote for the majority in a 2-1 opinion that the law was \u201cclear that an \u201capplicant for admission\u201d is also an alien who is \u201cseeking admission,\u201d and so Avila couldn’t petition on these grounds. <\/p>\n Circuit Court Judge Ralph R. Erickson dissented, saying that Avila would have been entitled to a bond hearing during his deportation hearings if he had been arrested during the past 29 years. Now, he wrote, the Circuit Court has ruled that Avila and millions of others would be subject to mandatory detention under a novel interpretation of \u201calien seeking admission\u201d that hasn\u2019t been used by the courts or five previous presidential administrations. <\/p>\n The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Avila, didn’t immediately return an email message seeking comment. <\/p>\n Attorney General Pam Bondi hailed the ruling, writing in a social media post: \u201cMASSIVE COURT VICTORY against activist judges and for President Trump\u2019s law and order agenda!\u201d<\/p>\n At question is the issue of whether the government is required to ask a neutral judge to to determine whether it is legal to imprison someone. <\/p>\n