Category
Pre-Removal Detention
Habeas challenges to civil immigration detention before a final order of removal — mandatory detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(c), discretionary custody under § 1226(a), and the contested reach of § 1225(b)(2) following the BIA's 2025 reclassification of long-resident noncitizens as "applicants for admission."
Buenrostro-Mendez v. Bondi: The Fifth Circuit Sides With the Government on EWI Detention
A divided Fifth Circuit panel held that all noncitizens present without admission — regardless of length of residence or community ties — are “applicants for admission” subject to mandatory § 1225(b)(2) detention. The decision reverses two district-court habeas grants and creates the cleanest possible circuit split on the central detention question of the 2025 enforcement era.
Maldonado Bautista v. Santacruz: A Nationwide Class Restores Bond Eligibility for EWI Detainees
Judge Sunshine Sykes certified a nationwide class and entered final judgment rejecting the Trump administration's recategorization of long-resident EWI noncitizens as “applicants for admission” subject to mandatory § 1225(b)(2) detention. The ruling restored bond eligibility — until the Fifth Circuit said otherwise.
Castañón Nava v. DHS: A Seventh Circuit Motions Panel Rejects the Government’s Detention Theory
On a motion to stay an interim release order entered after “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicagoland, a Seventh Circuit motions panel found DHS unlikely to succeed on the merits of its expanded mandatory-detention theory. The first federal appellate ruling rejecting the post-July 2025 framework, even in motions posture.
Black v. Almodovar: The Second Circuit Reaffirms Its Prolonged-Detention Framework
After substitution of respondents and a renewed government effort to walk back <em>Black v. Decker</em>, the Second Circuit reaffirmed the framework: prolonged § 1226(c) detention requires a bond hearing, and the government bears the burden of justifying continued custody by clear and convincing evidence.
Banyee v. Garland: The Eighth Circuit Says “No Time Limit”
A two-to-one Eighth Circuit panel reversed a habeas grant and held that the Due Process Clause “imposes no time limit on detention pending deportation” under § 1226(c). The decision sharpened the prolonged-detention circuit split and is now the principal adverse authority cited by the government nationwide.
Black v. Decker: The Second Circuit Sets a Clear-and-Convincing Floor for Prolonged § 1226(c) Detention
Two longtime lawful permanent residents had spent more than a year in mandatory criminal-alien detention without a bond hearing. The Second Circuit held that, after some indefinite point of unreasonableness, the Due Process Clause required one — and required the government to bear its burden by clear and convincing evidence.
Padilla v. ICE: A Credible-Fear Class Settlement and an Open Bond-Hearing Question
A long-running class action over delays in credible-fear interviews and bond-hearing procedures for asylum seekers detained under § 1225(b) settled in early 2024 on the credible-fear claims; the bond-hearing claims continued on interlocutory appeal and were argued in the Ninth Circuit in May 2025.