Appeals courts reject Trump bid to jail long-term migrants without hearings

WASHINGTON (MNTV) — The Trump administration’s push to expand immigration detention suffered another setback Thursday as two federal appeals courts rejected its reading of immigration law, ruling that long-term undocumented residents cannot be jailed automatically without a chance for release.

The rulings, from the 9th and 7th Circuit Courts of Appeals — two of the regional courts that sit just below the Supreme Court — warned that the government’s interpretation of the 1996 Immigration and Nationality Act would let authorities detain millions of people who have lived in the US for years without bond hearings.

In a 2-1 decision, a 9th Circuit panel found the administration wrongly read the law as requiring mandatory detention for all undocumented immigrants, holding that its mandatory-detention provisions were meant for people recently caught crossing the border, not those with established lives in the country.

Judge Daniel Bress, a Trump appointee who wrote the majority opinion, rejected the argument that Congress intended so sweeping a system. Hours later, the 7th Circuit ruled similarly.

The decisions mark growing judicial resistance to the detention strategy. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council said six appeals courts have now rejected the administration’s position and only two have backed it.

Representative Pramila Jayapal called the ruling a major victory, saying immigrants who have lived and worked in the US for years deserve “dignity, not detention.” The conflicting rulings are likely to push the dispute toward the Supreme Court.