Hundreds of judges have rejected the Trump administration’s efforts to detain immigrants indefinitely as they contest hardline deportation efforts, including judges nominated to the bench by President Donald Trump.
Analysis from Politico found that 308 judges have ruled against plans to implement a “mandatory detention” policy targeting all those suspected of living in the country illegally, no matter how long, without the possibility of release on bond.
The policy, which the administration has tried to implement since July 2024, has faced criticism for being unconstitutional and for running counter to long-standing federal practices that allow detention only for those deemed dangerous or likely to flee.
Of the judges who rebuffed the detention policy, 33 were appointed by Trump. Other rejections have come from appointees of every president dating back decades, including Joe Biden (103), Barack Obama (97), Bill Clinton (27), and 48 appointed by Republican presidents George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan.
U.S. District Judge Damon Leichty, who was nominated to the District Court for the Northern District of Indiana by Trump in 2018, was among those who ruled that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unlawfully detained an immigrant under the mandatory detention provision.
“The same wisdom that requires immigrants and noncitizens to follow the law equally requires the government to follow the law. That wasn’t done here,” Leichty wrote in a Dec. 30 ruling.
Judge Wendy Beetlestone, chief judge of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and an Obama appointee, likened the Trump administration’s repeated attempts to detain immigrants without due process, despite routine court defeats, to the Greek myth of Sisyphus endlessly rolling a boulder uphill.
“The Government returns again and again to push the same theory uphill, only for courts to send it rolling back down again,” Beetlestone wrote in a Dec. 22 ruling.
While there is no official limit on how long immigration officials can detain a suspected undocumented immigrant, Politico notes that the Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that six months is an “appropriate” detention period.
Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the administration is prepared to take its mandatory detention policy all the way to the nation’s highest court.
“ICE has the law and the facts on its side, and it adheres to all court decisions until it ultimately gets them shot down by the highest court in the land,” McLaughlin told Politico.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department for Homeland Security for further comment.
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