US Judge Throws Out Immigration Board’s Ruling Endorsing Trump Mass Detention Policy

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U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes in Riverside, California, vacated the decision, opens new tab by the Board of Immigration Appeals after finding the administration had failed to comply with her earlier order declaring unlawful the underlying policy of denying detainees the chance to seek release on bond.

Sykes’ Wednesday ruling, in a class action lawsuit that covers migrants nationwide, is more sweeping than decisions by hundreds of other U.S. judges holding the policy is unlawful and ordering detainees to be freed or given bond hearings.

Sykes, appointed by former Democratic President Joe Biden, called the administration’s actions “shameless” and accused it of trying to continue its “campaign of illegal action” by still refusing bond hearings despite her prior ruling.

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Sykes’ ruling means the board’s decision can no longer be used by immigration judges to deny bond hearings, said Niels Frenzen, a professor at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law who represented the plaintiffs.

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Bucking a long-standing interpretation of the law, the DHS last year – as part of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown – took the position that non-citizens already residing in the United States, and not only those who arrive at a port of entry at the border, qualify as applicants for admission.

The Board of Immigration Appeals, which is part of the Justice Department, issued a decision in September that adopted that interpretation, leading to immigration judges nationally employed by the department to mandate detention.

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