Appeals court lets Trump administration hold many immigration detainees without bond
A panel of appeals court judges handed the Trump administration a major legal victory in its quest to detain large swaths of immigrants living in the country illegally without bond.
The 2-1 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit marks the second time that a federal appellate court has sided with the administration on the issue, even as hundreds of lower court judges across the country have taken the opposite view. The conservative Fifth Circuit issued a similar ruling earlier this year.
Wednesday's ruling could impact more than 1,000 immigration detention cases in Minnesota alone, according to a source in the U.S. Attorney's office in that state. The Eighth Circuit also oversees six other states stretching from North Dakota to Arkansas.
The case involved a man named Joaquin Herrera Avila, a citizen of Mexico who was apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security in Minneapolis last August. DHS detained him without bond and brought removal proceedings against him.
His lawyers filed a petition of habeas corpus seeking his release, and the U.S. District Court in Minnesota granted the request. Wednesday's decision reversed the lower court's ruling.
The majority opinion was drafted by Judge Bobby Shepherd, a George W. Bush appointee, and joined by Judge L. Steven Grasz, a Trump appointee. Judge Ralph R. Erickson, who was appointed during President Trump's first term, dissented.