The administration urged the Supreme Court to review a 6th Circuit ruling that found illegal immigrants arrested inside the United States cannot be automatically detained without individualized bail hearings.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to restore a federal immigration detention policy that allows authorities to hold illegal aliens arrested inside the United States without bail hearings.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer urged the justices to review a May 11 decision from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that blocked a key part of the administration’s detention policy. The 6th Circuit ruling found that people who entered the country illegally and were later arrested in the U.S. interior are not “applicants for admission” subject to mandatory detention under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.
Sauer told the court the case presents a “critically important question of immigration law” and said the issue has generated thousands of detainee lawsuits across the country.
The dispute centers on a July 2025 Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo signed by then-acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons. The memo classified every undocumented immigrant as an “applicant for admission” and removed immigration judges’ authority to conduct bail hearings for that group.
The Board of Immigration Appeals later adopted the same interpretation in September 2025. Immigration judges across the country then began ordering detention without release under the policy.
The case before the Supreme Court, Lopez-Campos v. Raycraft, involves petitioners from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Venezuela. They had lived in the United States for years before being arrested by ICE or Customs and Border Protection.
A divided 6th Circuit panel rejected the administration’s interpretation. Judge Eric Clay, joined by Judge R. Guy Cole, ruled that the petitioners could not be held under the no-bail statute and that detaining them without individualized hearings violated the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause. Judge Eric Murphy dissented.
Sauer argued in the petition that detention during removal proceedings helps prevent illegal immigrants from avoiding court and removal.
“Detaining aliens who are living in the country after an illegal entry while their removal proceedings unfold prevents those aliens from evading hearings and helps ensure their removal from the United States,” Sauer wrote.
The administration said the Supreme Court should intervene because federal appeals courts are divided. The 5th and 8th circuits have accepted the administration’s interpretation, while the 2nd, 6th and 11th circuits have rejected it.
Politico, citing the filing, reported that more than 9,300 lower-court rulings have gone against the policy.
The outcome could affect tens of thousands of detainees. ICE held roughly 73,000 people in custody as of January, a record number, and the no-bail policy is a central part of that detention system.
If the Supreme Court sides with the administration, federal immigration authorities could continue applying the no-bail policy nationwide. If the justices reject the policy, the government would be required to provide bail hearings for large numbers of detainees, a shift that could lead to more releases while removal cases proceed.
The filing came one day before the Supreme Court delivered two immigration-related wins to the Trump administration, including a 6-3 decision allowing the rollback of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and Syrians while litigation continues.
Original article
Comments