The judges ruled that such individuals qualify as ‘applicants for admission’ under federal immigration law, subjecting them to mandatory detention under law.
A federal appeals court has sided with the Trump administration in upholding a policy that mandates detention without bond hearings for illegal immigrants in the United States who entered without inspection.
In a 2–1 decision issued on Feb. 6, the New Orleans-based Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed lower court rulings that had granted habeas petitions to two Mexican nationals, Victor Buenrostro-Mendez and Jose Padron Covarrubias. The panel determined that such individuals qualify as “applicants for admission” under federal immigration law, subjecting them to mandatory detention under 8 U.S.C. Section 1225(b) rather than discretionary release options available under Section 1226(a).
The majority opinion, authored by Circuit Judge Edith Jones, emphasized adherence to statutory text.
“The text says what it says, regardless of the decisions of prior administrations,” the court stated, rejecting arguments that the policy represented an unlawful shift from prior interpretations by the Department of Homeland Security and Board of Immigration Appeals.
“By eliminating the exclusion/deportation dichotomy, [the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act] put aliens seeking admission lawfully on equal footing with those who entered without inspection. It seems strange to suggest that Congress would have preserved bond hearings exclusively for unlawful entrants.”
Circuit Judge Dana Douglas dissented. She argued that the Congress, which enacted the 1996 act, “would be surprised to learn it had also required the detention without bond of two million people.”
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi praised the 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.
