Editorial
The Great Writ, on the modern docket.
A nationwide chronicle of habeas corpus litigation in U.S. immigration cases — from prolonged mandatory detention to the Alien Enemies Act, from Zadvydas releases to the third-country removal docket, and from the Fifth Circuit to the Supreme Court's shadow rulings.
The § 1225(b)(2)(A) Split Reaches the Supreme Court: Nine Circuits, Two Holdouts, and a Grant of Certiorari
Eleven courts of appeals have now decided whether noncitizens who entered without inspection and live in the interior can be held without bond under § 1225(b)(2)(A). Nine said no; the Fifth and Eighth Circuits said yes. On October 1, 2026 the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Rhoney v. Barbosa da Cunha.
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All articles →Sosnava Rodriguez v. Vergara: The En Banc Fifth Circuit Closes the Due-Process Route to a Bond Hearing
Three long-resident men held without bond under § 1225(b)(2)(A) won habeas relief on due-process grounds. The full Fifth Circuit reversed, 10–7: so long as removal remains a viable prospect, detention without a bond hearing does not violate due process.
Cunha v. Freden: The Second Circuit Becomes the First Court of Appeals to Reject the § 1225(b) Mandatory-Detention Theory
A Brazilian who entered without inspection two decades ago and applied for asylum was held without bond under the 2025 reclassification theory. The Second Circuit became the first court of appeals to reject it, holding that interior-arrested noncitizens are detained under § 1226(a) and remain bond-eligible. The Supreme Court has since granted certiorari.
Mahdawi v. Trump: The Second Circuit Closes the District-Court Door It Had Opened
A Columbia student arrested after his naturalization interview won release from a Vermont district court on First Amendment grounds. The Second Circuit vacated that order and directed dismissal, holding that § 1252(b)(9) channels the claims into removal proceedings and a petition for review.
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights v. Mullin: A Standing Lesson for Anyone Suing Over a Memo
Three organizations won a stay of the Huffman Memorandum and an ICE email directing officers to place parolees in expedited removal. The D.C. Circuit vacated it — not on the merits, but because the plaintiffs had left untouched the regulation that made their members removable anyway.
Make the Road New York v. Mullin: The D.C. Circuit Lets Nationwide Expedited Removal Stand
In January 2025 the Executive expanded expedited removal to the full extent Congress allows — anywhere in the country, for anyone who cannot prove two years of continuous physical presence. The district court stayed it on due-process grounds; the D.C. Circuit vacated that stay.
Hernandez Alvarez v. Warden: The Eleventh Circuit Confines § 1225(b) to Those Actually “Seeking Admission”
Two noncitizens arrested at traffic stops in the Southeast were held without bond as “applicants for admission.” The Eleventh Circuit affirmed habeas relief, holding that § 1225(b)(2)(A) reaches only those actually seeking admission — not everyone merely present in the country.
Petrova v. Hyde: Forum, the Immediate-Custodian Rule, and What Happens When ICE Moves the Petitioner
A Harvard researcher detained at the border and transferred from Vermont to Louisiana tested the immediate-custodian rule. The court kept jurisdiction where the petition was filed, ordered her release, and later held that customs officers had no authority to cancel her visa.
Herrera Avila v. Bondi: The Eighth Circuit Joins the Fifth, and the Mandatory-Detention Split Hardens
A Mexican national who had lived in the United States for roughly twenty years was detained without bond after a Minneapolis traffic stop. A divided Eighth Circuit reversed his habeas grant, holding that any unadmitted noncitizen present in the country is an “applicant for admission” subject to mandatory detention.
Abedi v. Carter: Twenty-Three Years on Supervision, Eight Months Without a Removal Country
An Iranian national granted deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture in 2002 had lived on supervised release for twenty-three years when ICE re-detained him in June 2025. With removal to Iran barred by that order and attempts to remove him to Turkey and the United Arab Emirates unsuccessful, the District of Kansas ordered him released.
De Souza-Ferreira v. Decker: When CAT Withholding Meets Indefinite Detention
A Brazilian national who had been granted CAT withholding to Brazil could not be removed there. Government speculation about a third-country resettlement was insufficient under <em>Zadvydas</em> to justify nine months of continued detention. Habeas granted.
Rodriguez Romero v. Ladwig: Re-Detaining People ICE Had Already Released, and the Limits of Zadvydas
Four long-resident noncitizens whom ICE had previously released on orders of supervision — having found removal impracticable — were re-detained in 2025. A Louisiana court held the renewed detention unlawful under Zadvydas and ordered their release.
Sagastizado Sanchez v. Noem: Due Process and the Unreviewed “Reasonable Fear” Interview Before Third-Country Removal
A Salvadoran granted withholding of removal to his home country was slated for removal to Mexico after a negative reasonable-fear interview the government said no immigration judge could review. A Texas court held that due process likely requires that review before such a removal.
Y.A.P.A. v. Trump: An Alien Enemies Act Habeas Petition at Stewart, and the Process Owed Before CECOT
A Venezuelan asylum-seeker detained in Georgia on an unsubstantiated allegation of gang association sought habeas relief against summary removal under the Alien Enemies Act. The court enjoined his AEA removal until it could decide what process was due.
Ercelik v. Hyde: A Massachusetts Court Separates Protected Protest From the Conduct the Government May Punish
A former Massachusetts student alleged his detention was retaliation for pro-Palestinian activism. The court distinguished an unprotected physical altercation from his protected expression and ordered his release from custody.
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The Alien Enemies Act
The 1798 wartime statute, dormant for eighty years, was invoked in March 2025 against Venezuelan nationals alleged to be members of Tren de Aragua. The litigation that followed is now the most consequential habeas docket in the country.
10 articlesPre-Removal Detention
Habeas challenges to civil immigration detention before a final order of removal — mandatory detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(c), discretionary custody under § 1226(a), and the contested reach of § 1225(b)(2) following the BIA's 2025 reclassification of long-resident noncitizens as "applicants for admission."
12 articlesPost-Removal Detention
The Zadvydas docket: petitions seeking release from detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1231(a)(6) when removal is not significantly likely in the reasonably foreseeable future. With the 2025 enforcement push, this corner of the law is busier than it has been in two decades.
7 articlesThird-Country Removal
Litigation over the practice of removing noncitizens to countries other than their country of citizenship — South Sudan, Eswatini, Uganda, El Salvador's CECOT — and the procedural protections owed before such removals occur.
6 articlesFirst Amendment Detentions
The 2025 wave of habeas petitions filed by green-card holders, student-visa holders, and academics arrested by ICE for speech and political association — from Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia to Rumeysa Ozturk at Tufts.
7 articlesProcedural & Doctrinal Pivots
The structural rulings that govern the immigration habeas docket: jurisdiction and venue, the "zipper clause," class certification, EAJA fee shifting, and the BIA precedent decisions that triggered a nationwide surge in § 2241 filings.
6 articles