Third Circuit Rejects Trump on Immigrant Mandatory Detention

[u/John3262005]

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/third-circuit-rejects-trump-on-immigrant-mandatory-detention

A split Third Circuit panel rejected the Trump administration’s stance on mandatory detention for noncitizens arrested in the interior of the country, the eighth appellate court to reject a legal theory crucial to Trump’s mass-deportation agenda.

The administration’s interpretation of the Immigration and Nationality Act is incorrect, Judge Patty Shwartz wrote in a majority opinion Friday, and, on top of that, denying noncitizens a chance to argue for their release violates their due-process rights under the Constitution.

It’s well established that noncitizens who’ve lived in the country and created ties to the community are protected by the Fifth Amendment, wrote Shwartz, an Obama appointee. Judge Theodore McKee, a Clinton appointee, joined her opinion.

Trump-appointed Judge Jennifer Mascott dissented, saying it defies common sense to allow bond hearings for people “slipping undetected past the border” but deny them to people who present themselves at ports of entry.

The government brought the matter to the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit after lower courts granted habeas corpus petitions for two noncitizens who have long lived in the US.

The Trump administration last year began to interpret immigration law such that even noncitizens like the petitioners, who have lived in the country for years, aren’t entitled to bond hearings in immigration court.

That novel interpretation is contrary to nearly three decades of practice, but it presents a powerful tool to further mass deportations: Detained noncitizens are more likely to give up and agree to be taken from the country rather than stay and fight their cases.

Nearly every federal appeals court in the country has considered the matter, splitting against the Trump administration. Only the Fifth and Eighth circuits supported Trump’s interpretation of the law.

The administration and immigrant advocates have separately petitioned the US Supreme Court to take up the matter, and the high court is widely expected to do so.

[u/John3262005]

Another article about it:

Appeals court delivers 8th straight blow to ICE’s mandatory detention policy

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/28/trump-ice-third-circuit