Sixth Circuit Court orders bond hearings for detained immigrants, overturning mandatory detention rule

A three‑judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a 2‑1 decision rejecting the Trump administration’s interpretation that most immigration detainees must be held without bond. The ruling requires ICE to provide bond hearings and to prove that continued detention is necessary, restoring a decades‑long practice that allowed long‑term residents to remain with their families while removal cases proceed.

The decision applies to thousands of detainees in Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky and provides a legal pathway for individuals such as Elvira Benitez Suarez, a Wisconsin resident detained in Kentucky, to seek release on bond. ACLU attorneys hailed the ruling as a restoration of due‑process rights and a check on what they described as an “inhumane” mandatory detention policy.

The judgment follows a broader judicial split, with other circuits both upholding and striking down the policy, and adds momentum to ongoing challenges against the administration’s immigration enforcement approach.