By Zachary Stieber

President Donald Trump’s administration can hold illegal immigrants in detention without bond hearings, a full federal appeals court ruled on Oct. 23.

Illegal immigrants do not gain constitutional protections against indefinite detention without a bond hearing until they have been legally admitted, even if they have been in the United States for a period of time, a majority of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit judges said in the ruling.

“The Constitution does not entitle them to a bond hearing,” the majority said.

The three immigrants in the case had argued that under the Fifth Amendment, keeping them detained without a hearing violated their due process rights. Federal judges agreed, ordered them released, and forbade the government from detaining them again until bond hearings were conducted to assess each one’s danger level and risk of fleeing.

A split Fifth Circuit panel of three judges ruled in July that the illegal immigrants, who have lived in the United States for years after entering illegally, could not be held for more than 90 days without a bond hearing.

The full Fifth Circuit vacated the panel decision as it considered the case.

“Controlling illegal immigration is, no doubt, an important and controversial issue of public policy. But the Constitution entrusts broad authority to delineate immigration policy, and to design proceedings to effectuate those policy choices, to Congress—not court,” the majority of the court said on Friday. “Neither we nor the district courts are free to ignore that bedrock principle and rewrite the immigration policy Congress has enacted.”

It vacated the district court orders that sided with the illegal immigrants.

The ruling deals with federal immigration law, which says that “in the case of an alien who is an applicant for admission, if the examining immigration officer determines that an alien seeking admission is not clearly and beyond a doubt entitled to be admitted, the alien shall be detained.” An alien, or immigrant, who is present in the United States but who has not been admitted shall be considered an applicant, the law says.

Trump administration guidance issued in 2025 said illegal immigrants already inside the country are subject to mandatory detention under the law, prompting a flurry of legal challenges.

The Fifth Circuit had already ruled in favor of the administration in a separate case, as did the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Four other appeals courts have sided with arguments that a different law governs the proceedings, and that the illegal immigrants are entitled to bond hearings.

The Supreme Court is set to resolve the circuit split. On Oct. 1, justices accepted one of the cases.

Friday’s ruling included multiple concurrences, including from Circuit Judge James Ho, who wrote that because the illegal immigrants are free to leave the United States at any time, “what Petitioners seek is not liberty, but license to violate our national sovereignty.” He said that Congress has the power to close borders and direct detention of illegal immigrants pending removal.

Circuit Judge Leslie Southwick, joined by five other judges, dissented.

“The Government’s interest in removal is substantial, and detention serves it for a time,” she wrote. “The Constitution does not forbid the detention. It forbids the ‘mistaken or unjustified deprivation’ of liberty. It permits the Government to hold an alien while it decides, without unreasonable delay, whether removal will be ordered. The Constitution does not permit the Government to hold an alien for as long as that decision takes, with no obligation ever to justify continuing confinement.”