Fourth Circuit Court rejects Trump administration immigrant detention policy

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a 2-1 decision rejecting the Trump administration’s argument that millions of immigrants could be held in mandatory detention without access to bond hearings.

In the ruling, Judge Nicole Berner compared the administration's proposed mass detention policy to historical instances of racial injustice, specifically citing the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the 1892 Geary Act. Berner stated that mass detention of marginalized individuals without due process “harkens back to some of the darkest moments in our country’s history.”

The court declined to interpret an ambiguously worded statutory provision as establishing a mandate for the government to detain individuals without due process, noting that the government's position was driven by “racial animus masquerading as national interest.”