Federal Appeals Court Upholds Rights of Detained Noncitizens to Bond Hearings

BOSTON – A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld a ruling declaring that the Trump administration is unlawfully denying bond hearings to thousands of people arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New England. The ruling is part of a class-action lawsuit, Guerrero Orellano v. Moniz, brought by the ACLU of Maine and other advocates.

In 2025, the federal government abandoned its 29-year understanding of a 1996 law and announced that millions of noncitizens living in the United States would have no opportunity to ask for release on bond if detained by ICE. This new guidance defies decades of government practices, federal law, and fundamental due-process protections. It also exacerbates longstanding problems with immigration detention, including overcrowding, medical neglect, inadequate nutrition, and more. Last night, the First Circuit for the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a district court ruling finding the new policy unlawful, reasoning that the federal government’s interpretation violated the relevant statutory text and congressional intent.

“We are pleased that the court is vindicating the rights of immigrants unlawfully detained in Maine and throughout New England,” said ACLU of Maine Legal Director Carol Garvan. “The government’s cruel mandatory detention policy stripped people of the chance to seek their freedom while indefinitely separating them from their loved ones, communities, and jobs. The policy also upended decades of standard civil immigration procedures, violating the clear language of federal law. The court's order is clear: no administration is above the law. The government cannot arrest and detain people indefinitely without providing them with a hearing in front of a judge.”

With Thursday’s ruling, seven appellate courts and hundreds of district court judges have now issued rulings holding that the Trump administration’s new policy of subjecting noncitizens living in the country to categorical detention without a bond hearing is unlawful.

The petitioner and class in Guerrero Orellano v. Moniz are represented by the ACLU of Maine, ACLU, ACLU of Massachusetts, ACLU of New Hampshire, Annelise Araujo Law, Foley Hoag, Anderson & Kreiger, and the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic.

BACKGROUND

For almost 30 years, the government and courts have understood that people arrested by immigration authorities inside the United States are generally eligible for a bond hearing to determine if they will be detained or released during their immigration proceedings. The Trump administration reversed this in early July 2025, reinterpreting immigration laws to subject anyone who initially entered the country without inspection to detention without any possibility of release on bond.

The original class action complaint in this case was filed on behalf of Jose Arnulfo Guerrero Orellana and a class of similarly situated individuals. In October 2025, the district court granted a preliminary injunction and ordered a bond hearing for Mr. Guerrero Orellana, who was later released on bond. Later that month, the court certified a class of individuals arrested by federal immigration officials inside the United States and held in New England detention facilities. In December, the district court granted partial summary judgment and rejected the government’s incorrect interpretation of federal statute. The federal government appealed this victory in January 2026.

As the lawsuit argued and the district court ruling affirmed, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice abruptly began to misclassify people arrested by ICE inside the United States in 2025. These people may only be detained under the statutory authority of 8 U.S.C. § 1226, which usually allows for the opportunity to request release on bond during removal proceedings. However, starting in July 2025, the Trump administration began systematically misclassifying many of these people and placing them in mandatory no-bond detention under the provisions of 8 U.S.C. § 1225. The district court ruled that the government’s action violated the law, restoring access to bond hearings for a class of people arrested and detained throughout New England.

As revealed in subsequent court filings, the government’s chief immigration judge later instructed her colleagues to ignore declarations like the one entered in this case. Immigration judges continue to systematically deny bond hearings to people arrested within the United States by ICE who allegedly entered without inspection, no matter how long the person has been in the country. This policy violates the plain language of the federal detention statutes and could deny fundamental due process rights to millions of people.

Read the First Circuit opinion here.