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A Trump administration policy to detain migrants without a chance for release on bond harkens back to the mass detention of Japanese Americans during World War II, a federal court said Thursday.
In a 2-1 decision, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the administration’s mass detention policy, a major part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
“Mass detention of marginalized individuals without due process harkens back to some of the darkest moments in our country’s history,” the court wrote.
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Nine federal appeals courts have now separately ruled that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) new mandatory detention policy is illegal, concluding it could apply to recent arrivals at or near the border, but not to migrants determined to be living elsewhere within the country.
Two other appeals courts have upheld it, meaning the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to take up the case in its upcoming term.
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Immigrant rights groups say basic due process is being violated when longtime residents are denied bond hearings during removal proceedings.
“The courts have resoundingly rejected the administration’s cruel policy and its blatant disrespect for the rule of law,” said My Khanh Ngo, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “We are thrilled for our clients and their families.”
Mass arrests of suspected illegal immigrants during President Donald Trump’s second term have prompted widespread protests, particularly in Democratic-led cities like Chicago. In July 2025, the administration announced that it would detain every migrant found anywhere in the U.S. whom ICE determines was not granted permission to enter.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the agency was disappointed with Thursday’s decision, but said it recently sought a Supreme Court review of a similar decision from the Sixth Circuit.
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“Opinions from the Board of Immigration Appeals and two other federal courts of appeals reflect the soundness of DHS’s legal position,” the spokesperson said. “This legal position was the nail in the coffin for Biden’s catch and release policies. That is why the left and their activist proxies on the judiciary are resisting it so vigorously.
“President Trump and Secretary Mullin are now enforcing the law as it was actually written to keep America safe,” the spokesperson added. “As our record in the U.S. Supreme Court demonstrates, the law is on our side.”
Writing for the majority, 4th Circuit Judge Nicole Berner invoked the mass internment of Japanese Americans during World War II as a warning against sweeping executive detention authority without due process.
“The stain of these detentions on our nation—and the judiciary’s abdication of its obligation to protect basic freedoms—continues to haunt us,” Berner wrote.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House and ICE.
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