Overview
- A three-judge panel, which ruled 2-1 on Wednesday, extended the policy across seven Eighth Circuit states including Minnesota and could alter outcomes in more than 1,000 local habeas cases.
- The decision follows a similar Fifth Circuit ruling and conflicts with at least one Seventh Circuit decision, creating a clear divide likely to draw the Supreme Court.
- The case arose from the detention of Joaquin Herrera Avila, who won release on bond in district court before the appellate court reversed that order.
- The majority said a 1996 immigration law lets DHS treat people arrested inside the country as “applicants for admission,” while a dissent argued this breaks with decades of practice under prior administrations.
- In separate filings, the Justice Department acknowledged it wrongly relied on an ICE memo to justify arrests at immigration courthouses, a mistake that could reopen challenges to those tactics.