Trump Forced to Release 65,000 ICE Detainees. Here’s Why.

Judges across the country have ordered the release of 65,000 detainees from federal immigration custody, revealing the extent of a massive operation to undermine the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

White House border czar Tom Homan told Fox News over the weekend that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees are filing “a record number of habeas cases” to get released and that “radical judges” are largely granting their petitions.

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The surge in habeas petitions comes after the Department of Homeland Security issued a sweeping policy to deny bond hearings to ICE detainees. The policy has led to a slew of legal challenges, leading to conflicting rulings by circuit courts across the country.

When illegal immigrants file habeas petitions to challenge their detention, their cases are moved from the immigration courts to federal district courts, where judges tend to look at their arguments more favorably, experts told The Daily Wire. If they get released, it can buy them years of additional time in the United States, allowing them to apply for immigration status.

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U.S. attorneys’ offices have become bogged down by the overwhelming caseload, which has forced them to divert criminal prosecutors to handle habeas immigration cases.

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