US Supreme Court Agrees to Rule on Trump Administration’s Mandatory Immigration Detention Policy

Case will decide whether immigrants facing deportation can be held without bond hearings, an issue that has split federal appeals courts

The United States Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to take up a challenge to a Trump administration policy that requires millions of immigrants living in the country illegally to be held in detention while their deportation cases proceed. The case, Rhoney v. Barbosa da Cunha, was accepted in an orders list issued following the justices’ long conference, with oral arguments expected to be scheduled between January and April 2027.

Under the policy, Immigration and Customs Enforcement tightened its detention rules last year, declaring that people at risk of deportation were ineligible for release on bond. Authorities may still release them on parole for humanitarian or public-interest reasons. The policy applies to all immigrants present in the country illegally, including those who have lived in the United States for many years.

The case stems from a challenge filed by Ricardo Aparecido Barbosa da Cunha, a Brazilian national who entered the United States illegally around 2004 or 2005 and has lived there since. Immigration officers arrested him in September 2025 as he drove to work in Norwood, Massachusetts, and he was initially refused a bond hearing under the contested policy. According to court filings, he has never been convicted of a crime. In April, the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the policy, prompting the administration’s appeal to the Supreme Court. The appeals court described it as the “broadest mass-detention-without-bond mandate in our nation’s history.”

The policy has divided the federal judiciary. The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, sided with the administration in a 2-1 ruling in February, reversing decisions that had freed two Mexican men. Overall, nine appeals courts have ruled that certain immigrants must be offered bond hearings and the possibility of release, while others have allowed detention without bond.

People held under the policy have filed tens of thousands of lawsuits seeking release, and a Reuters analysis in February found that hundreds of judges nationwide had ruled more than 4,400 times that such detentions were unlawful.

Immigration enforcement has been among President Trump’s top priorities since he returned to office last year, and the Supreme Court, which holds a 6-3 conservative majority, has permitted several of his administration’s immigration measures to take effect. Earlier this week, the court also agreed to hear a separate case on the administration’s practice of deporting certain immigrants to countries other than their own. The court’s new term begins on Monday.