The ruling covers people who entered illegally and have not been legally admitted, including long-term residents, denying them bond hearings while deportation cases continue.
The US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that immigrants who entered the country illegally and have not been legally admitted have no right to seek release on bond in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. The decision includes long-term residents. The Texas Tribune identified the ruling as issued on 23 October 2026 in its report that day.
A bond hearing gives a detained person an opportunity to ask a judge for release while deportation proceedings continue. Release on bond does not decide whether the person may remain in the US.
Savannah Kumar, a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas, pointed to the ruling when discussing prolonged detention with the Guardian. She said US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “essentially locks people up away from their families indefinitely”.
Previously, immigrants who had lived in the US for months or years could challenge their detention, while recent unauthorized border crossers could face rapid deportation without a bond hearing. In July 2025, the Trump administration announced a policy denying bond access to people arrested by ICE, regardless of how long they had lived in the country.
The case arose from arrests during Texas traffic stops between November 2025 and February 2026. Federal judges subsequently ordered the men released after finding that detention without an opportunity for a bond hearing violated their due-process rights—their right to fair legal procedures. The administration appealed, arguing that federal immigration law required detention until deportation without bond hearings.
Writing for the appeals court, Judge Cory Wilson reasoned that immigrants who have not been legally admitted receive only the rights Congress has specified in immigration law. Gracie Willis, an attorney with the National Immigration Project representing the men, described the decision as the court rejecting due process.
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The ruling does not prohibit detainees who entered legally from filing habeas corpus petitions—a legal procedure for challenging government detention. Filing a petition does not itself secure release.
As of 23 October, Willis said the National Immigration Project was assessing its next legal action and had not decided whether to appeal to the US Supreme Court. Immigration lawyers were also awaiting district courts’ responses to the ruling.
Earlier in October 2026, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a separate, similar case directly challenging the administration’s mandatory-detention policy.
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