The US Supreme Court today said it will review whether the Trump administration can enforce its policy of denying bond hearings for immigrants to determine whether they should remain detained while their cases are adjudicated. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
The novel move to impose mandatory detention is another feature of Trump's hardline immigration crackdown during his second term in office, and has now made its way to the top court after several appeals court judges ruled that the policy violated federal law and fails to provide immigrants with due process.
However, those decisions conflict with rulings by the fifth and eighth circuits – which ruled that immigrants accused of illegally entering and remaining in the US must be detained while their deportation cases are pending.
The case that will be part of the supreme court's docket for the 2026-27 term focuses on Ricardo Aparecido Barbosa da Cunha, a citizen of Brazil, who authorities say he entered the US illegally two decades ago and applied for asylum in 2016 and was granted a work permit.
He sought a bond hearing after an immigration judge determined that his detention was mandatory after his September 2025 arrest. After Barbosa da Cunha sued, a federal judge ordered that be provided a hearing or released. An immigration judge found that Barbosa da Cunha did not present a flight risk or danger to persons or property, and ordered him released on bond. The administration appealed against the decision.
The number of people in immigration detention has shot up since Trump returned to office. It was more than 65,000 in July 2026, up from about 40,000 at the end of Joe Biden's administration.