Six Federal Appeals Courts Split on Trump's Migrant Detention Policy, Setting Up Supreme Court Showdown

Four federal appeals courts—the Second, Sixth, Ninth, and Eleventh—have rejected the Trump administration's expanded mandatory detention policy, which denies bond hearings to migrants arrested in the US interior. The Fifth and Eighth Circuits have upheld it. A detained migrant's access to a bond hearing now hinges on their location. The administration petitioned the Supreme Court in June 2026 to resolve the split.