More than 18,000 immigrants have filed federal court challenges claiming their detention is illegal since the Trump administration implemented new deportation policies — exceeding the total from the previous three administrations combined. The surge in habeas corpus petitions is overwhelming federal courts and U.S. Attorney offices across the country.
What the Left Is Saying
Immigration advocates and legal experts say the administration's mandatory detention policies upend decades of legal precedent. Sirine Shebaya, executive director of the National Immigration Project, described the situation as "very, very chaotic," noting the "extremely traumatizing ways that people are being arrested and detained."
Federal judges have overwhelmingly sided with immigrants, with over 300 judges ruling against the administration's detention policies compared to only 14 upholding them, according to Politico. Denise Gilman, co-director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas at Austin, sees a positive outcome: "People are starting to pay attention to how massive and arbitrary and illogical the immigration detention system is."
Critics argue the policies unfairly target immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for years, pose no security or flight risk, and previously would have been eligible for bond hearings. "I don't recall a time that anything like this has ever happened," said Daniel Caudillo, director of the Immigration Law Clinic at Texas Tech University and a former immigration judge.
What the Right Is Saying
The Trump administration maintains it is enforcing federal immigration law as written. "President Trump and Secretary Noem are now enforcing the law and arresting illegal aliens who have no right to be in our country, and reversed Biden's catch and release policy," wrote DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.
A Department of Justice spokesperson blamed what they called "rogue judges" for the overwhelming caseload: "If rogue judges followed the law in adjudicating cases and respected the Government's obligation to properly prepare cases, there wouldn't be an 'overwhelming' habeas caseload."
On Friday, a divided three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit sided with the administration, ruling that mandatory detention applies to immigrants who entered unlawfully, limiting bond hearings to those who entered legally. Supporters argue this interpretation correctly applies federal immigration statutes.
The administration points to increased border security as the reason for higher detention numbers, which have risen from 40,000 when Trump took office to over 70,000 currently. Officials say the policy is necessary to prevent flight risk and ensure deportation proceedings are completed.
What the Numbers Show
ProPublica's analysis of federal court filings shows immigrants are filing an average of more than 200 habeas petitions daily, with California and Texas accounting for about 40% of new cases. The Western District of Texas alone has received over 1,300 cases in the last three months.
In Minnesota, habeas filings jumped from 12 cases in 2024 to over 700 in the past two months, placing it third nationally. The El Paso federal district received 759 petitions in all of 2025 — a record broken in just the first month of 2026.
U.S. Attorney offices report severe strain, with Minnesota's Daniel Rosen stating his civil division is at 50% capacity while staff work "continuously overtime." The office has ceased all affirmative civil enforcement, including environmental and civil rights cases.
While the number of detained border crossers has fallen, immigrants arrested by federal agents elsewhere in the country tripled during the first nine months of the Trump administration, according to the Deportation Data Project.
The Bottom Line
The legal battle over immigration detention is creating an unprecedented crisis in the federal court system, with fundamental questions about detention authority now headed toward potential Supreme Court review. Appeals have been filed in nine of the 12 regional appeals courts, setting up a possible nationwide resolution to the conflict between administration policy and district court rulings. The outcome will determine whether thousands of immigrants can remain in their communities during deportation proceedings or must stay detained indefinitely.
Meanwhile, the strain on the legal system continues to grow, with ProPublica launching a tracker to monitor the rising caseload in real time.