The Trump administration scored a major full-panel victory at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Friday, which ruled that detained illegal immigrants who were never formally admitted into the U.S.
are not constitutionally entitled to bond hearings while awaiting deportation.The ruling comes as the Supreme Court prepares to hear Rhoney v.Barbosa da Cunha this term, a closely related fight over whether the federal mandatory-detention statute applies at all to longtime immigrants arrested inside the country — setting up the possibility that the justices could either undercut Friday’s ruling or strengthen the government's hand.The Fifth Circuit answered the constitutional question in Ignacio Sosnava Rodriguez v.
Sylvester M.Ortega, finding that three immigrant men detained under the mandatory-detention statute are not entitled to bond hearings under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
The court held that their years or even decades of residence in the United States, along with ties to the country and their communities, do not create a constitutional right to a bond hearing."The Constitution does not entitle them to a bond hearing," the court wrote.FEDERAL APPEALS COURT COMPARES TRUMP MIGRANT DETENTION POLICY TO JAPANESE AMERICAN INTERNMENTDozens of immigrants are detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents inside the Federal Plaza courthouse in New York City on Thursday, June 26, 2025, following their legal proceedings. (Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images)Meanwhile, the Supreme Court will consider Rhoney, a case out of the Second Circuit, to determine whether the mandatory-detention law applies to longtime immigrants arrested inside the country in the first place.At the center of the issue is a 9-2 circuit split over which federal detention law applies to immigrants who entered the country illegally, were never formally admitted and were later arrested by immigration authorities after living in the U.S.for years — som...