The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled February 7 that the federal government can detain illegal immigrants indefinitely without bond hearings, ending 30 years of precedent. The 2-1 decision subjects millions of long-term U.S. residents to mandatory detention regardless of criminal record, family ties, or flight risk.
Circuit Judge Edith Jones wrote that “unadmitted aliens apprehended anywhere in the United States are ineligible for release on bond, regardless of how long they have resided inside the United States.” The decision applies to detention centers in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
The plaintiffs were Mexican nationals who lived in the United States over 10 years. Neither had criminal records. Neither posed flight risks. Both were detained for months in 2025 before a lower Texas court granted bond in October. The 5th Circuit reversed, ordering them back to detention.
Judge Dana Douglas dissented: The elected Congress members who passed the Immigration and Nationality Act “would be surprised to learn it had also required the detention without bond of two million people.” Many detained are “the spouses, mothers, fathers, and grandparents of American citizens.”
The Trump administration changed the policy July 2025. Under past administrations, most noncitizens with no criminal record arrested away from the border could request bond hearings. Bond was often granted to those without convictions who weren’t flight risks. Mandatory detention was limited to recent border crossers.
The legal shift began with the Board of Immigration Appeals ruling in Matter of Yajure Hurtado in 2025. Anyone who enters without inspection—regardless of how long ago—remains legally “trying to enter” the United States. They’re classified as “applicants for admission” ineligible for bond under Immigration and Nationality Act § 1225(b)(2)(A).
El Paso Senior U.S. District Judge David Briones called the change unprecedented. “The law has always been that they’re entitled to a bond hearing, but last year, the immigration appeals court changed it, just out of the blue. I’m sure Trump is the one that got the Board of Immigration Appeals to change it.”
The shift overwhelmed federal courts. Over 1,000 detained immigrants filed habeas corpus petitions seeking bond hearings. District judges ruled 300 to 14 against the administration. Even conservative Republican-appointed judges sided with detainees. The 5th Circuit became the first appeals court to uphold the no-bond policy.
Briones described the pattern: “My clerks say, ‘OK, we got another one.’ He’s been here since 2009, he was picked up at the bank or coming back from school, and he’s got a clean record.”
The ruling doesn’t eliminate constitutional due process claims. But the statutory claim that the Immigration and Nationality Act requires bond hearings is now foreclosed in the 5th Circuit.
Other appeals courts will rule on similar cases soon. If they rule differently, the Supreme Court will likely resolve the split.
The administration argues the interpretation prevents “catch and release.” Studies show 37 percent of immigrants released pending trial never appeared over the past 20 years. Of nearly 2.5 million aliens released from detention, 918,098 failed to appear.
But the 5th Circuit ruling doesn’t just affect recent border crossers. It applies to anyone who ever entered without inspection—including people who have lived, worked, and raised families in the United States for decades.
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