Appeals court strikes down Trump administration detention policy

NEW YORK - A federal appeals court has rejected the Trump administration’s policy that required detainment of almost all of those it is seeking to deport.

A panel of judges ruled that the administration adopted a new but incorrect interpretation of a decades-old immigration law to support the mass detention policy. 

What they're saying:

"Today, although we part ways with two other circuits that have addressed this question, we join the overwhelming majority of federal judges across the Nation to consider it and conclude that the government’s novel interpretation of the immigration statute defies their plain text," Judge Joseph F. Bianco wrote for the panel, which included Judges Alison J. Nathan and Jose A. Cabranes.

Trump’s mandatory detention policy 

Dig deeper:

Under the policy, the Department of Homeland Security has been denying bond hearings to immigrants arrested across the country, including those who have been in the U.S. for years without any criminal history. 

The other side:

Under previous administrations, most noncitizens with no criminal record who were arrested away from the border were given the opportunity to request a bond hearing while their cases moved through immigration court.

In those cases, bond was often granted to people who were deemed not to be flight risks, and mandatory detention was limited to those who had just entered the country.

DHS says "law and the facts" are on its side

In a statement emailed to The Associated Press, the DHS pointed to a Board of Immigration Appeals ruling upholding the mandatory detention policy, and said Trump and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin "are now enforcing this law as it was actually written to keep America safe."

"Regarding decisions from federal courts about mandatory detention, judicial activists have been repeatedly overruled by the Supreme Court on these questions. ICE has the law and the facts on its side and will be vindicated by higher courts," DHS said.