Trump’s Immigration policy faces Supreme Court test as Justices take up unusual move
WASHINGTON, DC: In a significant development in the legal battle over President Donald Trump’s immigration policy, the Supreme Court on Thursday, October 1, agreed to review one of the Trump administration’s most aggressive and controversial moves to crack down on immigration.
The high court will review Trump’s policy of imposing mandatory detention without bond hearings for people who entered the country illegally.
SCOTUS to review key part of Trump’s immigration policy
By agreeing to take up a key part of the controversial immigration policy, the high court is once again making immigration a central issue in its new term, which begins next week.
After returning to power in 2025, Trump made an unprecedented move by reinterpreting an immigration law enacted by Congress in the 1990s to argue that people in the country illegally should be subject to mandatory detention without bond hearings.
No such action had been taken in the past, including during his first term.
The reinstatement of the policy resulted in a sharp increase in the number of migrants held in detention for entering the United States illegally.
For example, around 38,000 people were held in detention facilities at the end of the Biden administration, a figure that rose to more than 65,000 during the summer.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) crackdown prompted affected migrants to file habeas corpus petitions in federal courts across the country, challenging their detention.
Brazilian’s legal case becomes part of larger push against Trump’s policy
The case the court granted is centered around a Brazilian native, who entered the US illegally around 2004 or 2005.
ICE found him during a traffic stop in Massachusetts in 2025. His case eventually became part of the larger legal fight over whether the Trump administration can detain migrants without giving them a bond hearing.
The DOJ had asked the Supreme Court to review another case involving the same detention policy. But the Supreme Court chose this Brazilian man's case instead.
“The government’s detention of such unlawfully present aliens while their removal proceedings unfold implements the statute Congress enacted,” the Justice Department said in the other case that the court did not grant.
“Congress’s decision to mandate detention pending removal proceedings for aliens who are not entitled to be admitted into the country reflects vital policy objectives. Detaining aliens who are living in the country after an illegal entry while their removal proceedings unfold prevents those aliens from evading hearings and helps ensure their removal from the United States.”
What legal complications are in play?
The legal fight centers on two provisions of federal immigration law. One allows migrants who are arrested to be detained while their deportation cases are decided.
They can also be released on bond during that process. This has long allowed immigration officials to determine who should remain in detention.
However, another provision states that, “in the case of an alien who is an applicant for admission,” officials “shall” detain that immigrant if immigration officers determine that the person “is not clearly and beyond a doubt entitled to be admitted.”
