The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday sided with the Trump administration in a dispute over immigration detention without bond, reversing a lower-court order that would have required a bond hearing for a Mexican national arrested in Minnesota for lacking legal documents.
The ruling stems from a petition filed by Joaquin Herrera Avila after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security detained him without bond and began deportation proceedings. Avila, a Mexican national, was apprehended in Minneapolis in August 2025, according to the court decision described by the Associated Press, and he sought immediate release and an opportunity to request a bond hearing before an immigration judge.
A federal judge in Minnesota had granted Avila’s petition, saying the governing law allowed detention without bond when a person seeking admission is not clearly and beyond a doubt entitled to be admitted. The Minnesota judge concluded that Avila did not fit that “seeking admission” category because he had lived in the United States for years without seeking naturalization, asylum or refugee status.
On appeal, Circuit Court Judge Bobby E. Shepherd wrote for the majority in a 2-1 decision that the statute was “clear that an ‘applicant for admission’ is also an alien who is ‘seeking admission,’” and therefore Avila could not bring his petition on the “not clearly and beyond a doubt entitled to be admitted” grounds that the lower court had relied on.
Judge Ralph R. Erickson dissented, saying Avila would have been entitled to a bond hearing during his deportation hearings if he had been arrested during what the dissent described as the past 29 years. Erickson also argued the appeals court’s ruling would subject Avila and “millions of others” to mandatory detention based on a “novel interpretation” of “alien seeking admission” that, in his view, had not been used by courts or by five previous presidential administrations.
The decision marks a further appellate win for the Trump administration on the bond-hearing question. The Associated Press reported that it was the second appeals court to rule in favor of the administration on whether the government can deny bond hearings to immigrants detained while their cases move forward.
The 8th Circuit’s ruling also builds on a pattern of recent lower-court outcomes that have found the practice illegal. The Associated Press said a district court decision in California in November had granted detained immigrants with no criminal history the chance to request a bond hearing, and it said that earlier rulings had implications for noncitizens detained nationwide.
The Associated Press also reported that under past administrations, most noncitizens without criminal records who were arrested away from the border had opportunities to request bond hearings while their cases wound through immigration court, with mandatory detention generally limited to recent border crossers.
The Associated Press said the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Avila, did not immediately return an email message seeking comment. The Associated Press reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi hailed the ruling in a social media post, writing: “MASSIVE COURT VICTORY against activist judges and for President Trump’s law and order agenda!”
At the center of the dispute is whether the government must ask a neutral judge to determine whether it is legal to imprison someone, the Associated Press reported. The issue is linked to habeas corpus, the constitutional right to challenge detention in court, and the Associated Press said immigrants have filed more than 30,000 habeas corpus petitions in federal court alleging illegal detention since Trump took office, with many of those petitions succeeding, according to its tally.