Federal judges across the country are scrambling to manage an influx of lawsuits from immigrants held under the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign, as courts confront delays and what some judges describe as emergency-level case loads. In filings and orders described by the Associated Press, judges said the pace of habeas corpus petitions and related litigation is straining how quickly detained immigrants can obtain relief, including bond hearings.
The legal pressure is concentrated on a shift in the administration’s approach. Under past administrations, immigrants without criminal records generally could request bond hearings before an immigration judge while their cases moved through immigration court unless they were stopped at the border. The Trump administration reversed that policy in favor of mandatory detention, prompting many detained immigrants and their lawyers to turn to federal court through habeas corpus petitions.
In Georgia, U.S. District Judge Clay Land said the volume of habeas petitions generated what he called “an administrative judicial emergency” in his district. In a Jan. 29 court order in Columbus, Land said the Trump administration was refusing to provide bond hearings to immigrants held at Georgia’s Stewart Detention Center despite what he described as “clear and definitive rulings” against mandatory detention. He said the court had to order bond hearings in each case individually, and he noted that he was a nominee of Republican President George W. Bush.
In Minnesota, U.S. District Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz described similarly difficult case management. In a Jan. 26 order, Schiltz said Trump officials had made “no provision for dealing with the hundreds of habeas petitions and other lawsuits that were sure to result.” He said the court had received more than 400 habeas petitions in January alone, based on a government filing in a separate case, and that the administration had failed to comply with scores of court decisions ordering release or other relief for people arrested during Operation Metro Surge.
In the Southern District of New York, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian described the situation as a flood of habeas petitions seeking relief for immigrants who, he said, posed no flight risk or danger but were nonetheless held indefinitely. In an opinion in December, Subramanian said the district had been “flooded” with petitions, and he granted habeas relief to a 52-year-old Guinean woman, ordering her release. He wrote: “No one disputes that the government may, consistent with the law’s requirements, pursue the removal of people who are in this country unlawfully,” but added, “But the way we treat others matters.”
The Trump administration has defended its detention and deportation approach. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement on Friday that the administration was “more than prepared to handle the legal caseload necessary to deliver President Trump’s deportation agenda for the American people.” In a statement also circulated by email, the Justice Department and DHS slammed the judiciary, arguing that if judges followed the law and respected the government’s obligation to prepare cases, there would not be an “overwhelming” habeas caseload or concern over DHS following orders.
The administration also pointed to a recent appellate ruling. On Friday, a federal appeals court backed the administration’s policy of detaining immigrants without bond, according to the report. The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was described as a major legal victory for the government that countered lower court rulings arguing the practice was illegal.
Immigration attorneys said the administration has continued to deny bond hearings despite court decisions. In January, lead attorney Matt Adams told the Associated Press that a prior ruling by U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes in California was “a clear cut example of blatant defiance, blatant disregard of a court’s order.” Sykes, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, later expanded the scope of her November decision, which held the mandatory detention policy illegal, to apply nationwide to detained immigrants. According to the report, Adams said officials persisted in refusing bond hearings, and Sykes said the government argued her decision was “advisory” and instructed immigration judges—whom the report said work for the Justice Department and are not part of the judicial branch—to ignore it. The judge described that instruction as “troubling.”
Other judges said they were trying to reduce the burden on their courts. In Georgia, Land ordered other judges in his district to immediately order bond hearings for immigrants who meet criteria established by two prior habeas cases. In Maryland, Chief Judge George L. Russell III ordered the administration not to remove immigrants immediately after they filed habeas petitions with his court, under specified conditions, and he later amended the order in December after he said the court saw an influx of petitions that led to hurried and frustrating hearings.
In Tacoma, Washington, U.S. District Judge Tiffany Cartwright ordered the administration last month to give immigrants detained at a processing center notice of her ruling that mandatory detention was illegal. Cartwright said the high volume of habeas filings had put “a tremendous strain” on immigration attorneys and the court, according to the report.