5th U.S. Circuit says ICE must provide bond hearings within 90 days

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 Thursday that immigrants arrested inside the United States are entitled to a bond hearing within 90 days of detention and that continued, unjustified detention beyond that period would violate due process, the court said.

The appeals court, which covers Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, issued the panel decision that allows the government to seek a rehearing by the full court, the opinion said.

Mississippi Today reported that more than 58,000 immigrants held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have filed federal petitions challenging their detention, including nearly 600 in Mississippi. The news outlet reported that the federal judge assigned to those Mississippi cases, David Bramlette, has not ruled on the merits of any of them, leaving hundreds of detainees in limbo and some held for more than a year.

The decision comes after the Trump administration began enforcing a mandatory detention policy in 2025 that denied bond hearings for most people until an immigration court determined their status, the opinion noted. In February, the same New Orleans-based appeals court interpreted the statute as not distinguishing between where people were arrested. On Thursday the court agreed the statute makes no distinction but said ICE may hold detainees “for ninety days but no longer” without a bond hearing, because longer detention without justification would violate the Constitution.

The case on appeal arose after judges in Texas granted habeas petitions and ordered bond hearings for detainees who had been stopped in traffic, the opinion said. The three petitioners had entered the country more than a decade earlier, lived in the United States and were fathers of U.S. citizens, the court wrote. The opinion added, “Even though the BIA reinterpreted the meaning of statutory language, the Constitution has not changed.”

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