A second federal court ruled on March 25 that illegal aliens arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers do not have to face bond hearings, a step that would have been a bump in the road for President Donald Trump and his immigration enforcement operations. The case heard before the court involved Mexican national Joaquin Herrera Avila, who was taken into custody in Minneapolis last August.
Avila failed to produce the required legal credentials to enter the United States. He was subsequently held without bond and faced removal proceedings to have him booted from the country. “Massive court victory against activist judges and for President Trump’s law and order agenda,” Attorney General Pam Bondi stated after the Eighth Circuit Court in St. Louis reversed the decision of a lower court.
The latest ruling deemed many illegal immigrants who have been arrested ineligible for a chance to be released back on the streets. A district court in Minnesota granted Avila’s petition for habeas corpus, enabling him to challenge the legality of his detention, which the Trump administration filed their own challenge against.
According to Fox News, the Eighth Circuit stated in its ruling, “We reverse and remand [that ruling] for proceedings consistent with this opinion.” The decision was split, with Judge Bobby Shepherd, appointed to the bench during George W. Bush’s administration, writing the majority opinion. Shepherd said that the district court relied on federal law allowing illegal aliens to be detained without bond for “an alien who is an applicant for admission or seeking admission…”
The majority opinion considered Avila to no longer be seeking formal admission into the country because he had lived and worked in the U.S. for a number of years. However, Avila did not seek further residency status — naturalization or asylum — which means, according to the court, proved he was not “seeking admission” in a legal sense.
“The Eighth Circuit has held that illegal aliens can be detained without bond — following a similar ruling from the Fifth Circuit last month. The law is very clear, but Democrats and activist judges haven’t wanted to enforce it. This administration will,” Bondi explained. “Imagine how many illegal alien crimes could have been averted if the left had simply followed the law?”
The ruling handed down from the Eighth Circuit is in line with another decision from the Fifth Circuit out of New Orleans, which stated that noncitizens can be detained without bond. “If Congress wanted to make clear that ‘seeking admission’ was an independent requirement in the statute, it could have easily done so,” the court continued.
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Conservative commentator Gunther Eagleman posted on X that the court’s decision was a major victory against “activist judges.” He wrote, “Key decision: Illegal aliens already inside the U.S. can be detained without bond during removal proceedings.” Eagleman then went on to say that this “is a massive victory for the deportation mission.”
“Leftist judges can no longer force DHS to simply release invaders into our communities to commit more crimes. Huge L for open borders,” Eagleman added. Judge Ralph R. Erickson, appointed by President Trump, dissented to the court’s ruling, stating that aside from a DUI conviction, Avila lived in the country as a law-abiding resident for two decades and up until now, would have been provided the opportunity for a bond hearing.
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