ST. LOUIS — A panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the U.S. can continue to detain immigrants without bond. The ruling overturned a lower court decision that had required immigrants arrested for lacking legal documents to be given a bond hearing before an immigration judge.

The case centered on Joaquin Herrera Avila, a native of Mexico who was apprehended in Minneapolis in August 2025 for lacking legal documents authorizing entry into the United States. The Department of Homeland Security detained Avila without bond and initiated deportation proceedings.

Avila filed a petition seeking immediate release for a bond hearing. A federal judge in Minnesota granted Avila's petition, stating that the law authorized detention without bond when a person seeking admission is not clearly and beyond a doubt entitled to being admitted. The federal judge found that Avila was not "seeking admission" because he had lived in the United States for years without applying for naturalization, asylum, or refugee status.

Circuit Court Judge Bobby E. Shepherd authored the majority opinion in a 2-1 ruling that reversed this decision. "The law was clear that an 'applicant for admission' is also an alien who is 'seeking admission,' and so Avila couldn't petition on these grounds," Shepherd wrote.

Circuit Court Judge Ralph R. Erickson dissented, stating that Avila would have been entitled to a bond hearing during his deportation hearings if he had been arrested during the past 29 years. Erickson wrote that the ruling would subject Avila and millions of others to mandatory detention under a novel interpretation of "alien seeking admission" not previously used by the courts or five previous presidential administrations.

Last month, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that the Department of Homeland Security's decision to deny bond hearings to immigrants arrested across the country was consistent with the Constitution and federal immigration law. It was the second U.S. appeals court to rule in favor of the administration on the issue of detaining immigrants without bond. In November, a district court in California ruled that detained immigrants with no criminal history could request a bond hearing, affecting noncitizens held in detention nationwide. The two appeals court opinions countered recent lower court decisions across the country that had found the practice of detaining immigrants without bond to be illegal.

Under previous administrations, most noncitizens with no criminal record who were arrested away from the border were able to request a bond hearing while their cases proceeded through immigration court. Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on social media: "MASSIVE COURT VICTORY against activist judges and for President Trump's law and order agenda!"

The American Civil Liberties Union is representing Joaquin Herrera Avila. Immigrants have filed more than 30,000 habeas corpus petitions in federal court alleging illegal detention since President Trump took office.