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US appeals court rejects Trump’s immigration detention policy
In a 3-0 ruling, court says Trump administration misread a decades-old immigration law to justify mandatory detention.
A United States federal appeals court has rejected the Trump administration’s practice of subjecting most people arrested in its immigration crackdown to mandatory detention without the opportunity to seek release on bond.
In a 3-0 ruling on Tuesday, a panel of the New York-based US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said the administration relied on a novel but incorrect interpretation of a decades-old immigration law to justify the policy.
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Writing for the panel, US Circuit Judge Joseph F Bianco, a Trump appointee, warned that the government’s reading “would send a seismic shock through our immigration detention system and society”, straining already overcrowded facilities, separating families and disrupting communities.
Lawyers for the Trump administration say the mandatory detention policy is legal under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, passed in 1996.
But Bianco said the government had made “an attempt to muddy” the law’s “textually clear waters”, arguing that the administration’s interpretation “defies the statute’s context, structure, history, and purpose” and contradicts “longstanding executive branch practice”.
Under the Trump administration policy, the Department of Homeland Security last year took the position that non-citizens already living in the US, not just those arriving at the border, qualify as “applicants for admission” and are subject to mandatory detention.
Under federal immigration law, “applicants for admission” to the US are detained while their cases proceed in immigration courts and are ineligible for bond hearings.
The Department of Homeland Security has been denying bond hearings to immigrants arrested across the country, including those who have been living in the US for years without any criminal history, the Associated Press (AP) news agency reports.
That is a departure from the practice under previous US administrations, when most non-citizens with no criminal record who were arrested away from the border were given the opportunity to request a bond while their cases moved through immigration court, according to AP.
In such cases, bonds were 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.
Amy Belsher, director of immigrants rights’ litigation at the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the appeals court ruling affirmed “that the Trump administration’s policy of detaining immigrants without any process is unlawful and cannot stand”.
“The government cannot mandatorily detain millions of noncitizens, many of whom have lived here for decades, without an opportunity to seek release. It defies the Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and basic human decency,” Belsher said in a statement.
Conflicting rulings set stage for Supreme Court review
The New York court’s decision comes after two other appeals courts ruled in favour of the Trump administration’s policy.
Acknowledging the opposing rulings, Judge Bianco said the panel was parting ways with them and instead aligning with more than 370 lower-court judges nationwide who have rejected the administration’s position as a misreading of the law.
The split among the courts increases the likelihood that the US Supreme Court will weigh in.
The latest ruling also upheld an order by a New York judge that led to the release of Brazilian national Ricardo Aparecido Barbosa da Cunha, who was arrested by immigration officials last year while driving to work after living in the US for more than 20 years.
“The court was right to conclude the Trump administration can’t just reinterpret the law at its own whim,” Michael Tan, a lawyer for Barbosa at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.
The Department of Justice, which is defending the mandatory detention policy in court, did not respond to a request for comment.
It has been an interesting year and a half for the relationship between Canada and the United States, two countries marking birthdays this week. Canada turned 159 on Wednesday, and America is 250 on Saturday. It got us thinking about how much Americans really know about Canada.
Take our quiz and find out. To our American friends, because it’s your birthday we made it a little bit about you. And if you find it difficult, we’re sorry. Let’s start with an easy one.
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Keiko Fujimori, the conservative politician and daughter of the former president, was declared the winner Friday of Peru’s presidential runoff election.
Fujimori, 51, will take office later this month as Peru’s ninth president in 10 years. This was her fourth bid for the position following years of political instability in the country.
Fujimori thanked her supporters in a post on X announcing the conclusion of the election.
STATE DEPARTMENT CONGRATULATES KEIKO FUJIMORI AS PERU’S PRESIDENT-ELECT FOLLOWING RAZOR-THIN VOTE COUNT
Peru’s conservative Keiko Fujimori addresses the media at her party’s Popular Force headquarters. On Friday, she was declared the winner in the country’s presidential runoff. (Reuters)
“I receive with profound gratitude the trust that millions of Peruvians have placed in me. A new stage begins. We assume it with responsibility, humility, and a deep sense of duty,” she wrote. “Each day of this transition process is an opportunity to listen, engage in dialogue, and arrive prepared at the start of the new government. Through these accounts, we will share the progress of this stage and the work we have been carrying out. I invite you to join us.”
The Plenary of the National Elections Jury on Friday proclaimed Keiko Fujimori the winner of the presidential runoff after the June 7 election in Lima, Peru. (Reuters)
Peru’s top election authority certified the results Friday. Fujimori received 9,223,000 votes, or 50.14% of the total, while nationalist Congressman Roberto Sánchez earned over 9,173,000 votes, or 49.87%, The Associated Press reported.
Fujimori made it to the runoff after defeating 33 other candidates in April.
TRUMP ADMIN BACKS BOLIVIA STATE OF EMERGENCY AS LEFTIST EX-LEADER’S LOYALISTS FRACTURE NATION
Supporters of Keiko Fujimori of the Fuerza Popular party shout slogans outside the Lima Convention Center ahead of her debate with Roberto Sánchez in Lima May 31, 2026. (Connie France/AFP via Getty Images)
Her election came amid concerns from voters about surging crime, especially extortion by violent organized crime gangs. Fujimori has pledged to act tough on crime with an “iron fist.”
She is the daughter of the late Alberto Fujimori, the former president whose government in the 1990s defeated the Shining Path extremist rebel group but also took an authoritarian turn.
He was convicted in 2009 of human rights abuses in the fight against the rebels and, later on, corruption charges. His legacy within Peru remains deeply divisive.
Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori waves at his home in Santiago after leaving the academy for the training of corrections officers in Santiago, Chile, May 18, 2006. (AP Photo/Claudio Santana, File)
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On Tuesday, the State Department congratulated the younger Fujimori.
“The Trump administration looks forward to deepening collaboration with the Fujimori administration to advance security cooperation and to strengthen bilateral cooperation on investment and trade in our region,” the statement read.
Dozens of diamonds spell out two giant letter “T” next to the Stars and Stripes and “1776” and “2026.”
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Dozens more frame the numbers 45 and 47 in the shape of Superman’s logo.
A diamond-winged eagle carries a ruby shield and clutches an olive branch of emeralds, below a radiant “250” and atop the phrase “250 YEARS USA” etched in 18-karat gold.
All told, 321 diamonds, 56 sapphires, 13 emeralds and six rubies encrust the watch-sized gold ring presented this week to Bill White, the US ambassador to Belgium, to give to President Donald Trump.
“A very special thank you to my friends from Antwerp for the magnificent Freedom 250 ring,” Trump said in a prerecorded video message during an event marking America’s 250th birthday in Brussels.
Isidore Mörsel, president of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) gifted the ring on behalf of the centuries-old diamond community in the Belgian port city, a central hub in the worldwide trade of the precious stones that found itself struggling last year under the weight of Trump’s sweeping trade war.
“May this ring serve as a lasting reminder that true partnership like the finest natural diamonds are formed under pressure, endure the test of time, and shine brightest when built on trust,” Mörsel said.
The ring’s interior is engraved with the phrase “Crafted in Antwerp for Donald John Trump.”
In dollar terms, the ring’s value pales beside gifts like the $400 million (€349 million) plane donated by Qatar that Trump ordered converted into a new Air Force One.
But it’s a glitzy window into the role that ostentatious, and almost always gilded, gifts are playing by those seeking to curry favour with the US president.
A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter, said Thursday that the ring has not been presented to Trump yet.
Latest break with White House custom
The gift comes months after Belgium’s diamond industry won the removal of US tariffs on diamond imports.
In September, AWDC said it had “succeeded in securing a zero percent import tariff” on Antwerp’s annual export of more than $2 billion (€1.7 billion) of polished diamonds to the US.
A spokesperson for the group said on Thursday that the AWDC provided “input” to the European Commission as it negotiated with Trump on a broad deal on tariffs in 2025, but did not itself lobby the administration.
US presidents have considerable discretion to accept gifts from domestic and foreign sources and may determine themselves whether a gift was meant for them personally or the nation.
The exception is those from foreign governments, which are prohibited by the foreign emoluments clause of the Constitution without congressional assent, though presidents could use personal funds to reimburse the Treasury for the full value of an official gift if they wish to retain them.
Personal gifts are also supposed to be registered on the president’s annual financial disclosure.
Trump’s 2025 disclosure, released this week, revealed a $250,000 (€218,000) gift of a sculpture depicting his triumphal gesture after surviving a 2024 assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and tickets to 10 sporting events, including 10 to the upcoming World Cup final in New Jersey from FIFA’s Gianni Infantino, valued at a collective $15,000 (€13,000).
Four US ethics experts told the Associated Press news agency that Trump has broken with decades-old custom in the White House to avoid accepting such gifts.
Ring’s value estimated at $25,000-35,000
To forge the ring, the AWDC turned to David Gotlib, an Antwerp-based high-end jeweller whose cufflinks can sell for more than €15,000.
Neither AWDC nor Gotlib would provide a valuation of the ring, but two independent jewellers told AP they estimated the value between $25,000-35,000 (€21,000-30,000).
After the ring was presented on a star-spangled stage in Brussels, musician Alexis Wilkins, the girlfriend of FBI Director Kash Patel, sang the US national anthem to more than 8,000 people drinking Budweiser and bourbon from Tennessee and Kentucky.
White said he raised more than $5.5 million (€4.8 million) for the 250th anniversary event from corporate sponsors like defence industry titans Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, tech firms like Intel, Google and Meta, as well as the European chocolate companies Leonidas and Ferrero. AWDC said it contributed funds, too.
“The media was asking, ‘Why does it have to be so big?’” White said of the event. “Because we are the United States of America!”
Meanwhile, the fate of the ring is not clear.
On Wednesday, White posted a photo online of himself wearing the ring and giving a thumbs-up. The post has since been deleted.
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