Two federal appellate courts ruled on Thursday that the Trump administration cannot deny bond hearings to most immigrants detained inside the United States, deepening a circuit split that legal experts say the Supreme Court will likely resolve. The San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit and the Chicago-based Seventh Circuit both rejected the Department of Homeland Security’s policy of mandatory detention for all immigrants picked up by its agents, a shift that had previously applied only to those caught at the border. The Ninth Circuit’s 2-1 decision, written by a Trump appointee, held that the historical understanding of the statute limits mandatory detention to border arrests. The rulings mean that, in jurisdictions covering much of the southern border, immigrants will be entitled to a hearing where a judge decides whether they can be released while their cases proceed.

The Department of Homeland Security said it “strongly disagrees” with the Ninth Circuit panel and is confident in its legal position. The administration has argued that a 1996 change to immigration law permits mandatory detention beyond the border and that previous administrations failed to enforce it. The policy, introduced last year as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan, has triggered thousands of habeas corpus petitions in federal courts, with California district judges reporting they were “up all night” ruling on emergency cases. One chief judge sanctioned a government lawyer for failing to comply with release orders, warning that repeated mistakes would be viewed as a “deliberate and strategic choice.”

The legal battle unfolds as the administration moves to expand its physical detention infrastructure. The DHS has solicited bids for a new 700-bed detention centre in Miami, part of a plan to add facilities with 1,800 beds near Philadelphia and 1,500 beds each in the Seattle and Denver areas. The Miami project follows the closure of a temporary facility in the Everglades, which immigrant advocacy groups say signals an intent to replace provisional sites with permanent ones. Separately, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has intensified arrests at airports, with operations reported at at least 15 airports in recent weeks. Newly disclosed agreements show that the Transportation Security Administration has been sharing passenger data with ICE since at least May 2025, allowing officers to identify and detain travellers with expired visas, even those with pending applications for legal status. Immigration lawyers now advise clients with unresolved cases to avoid domestic air travel.

With two appellate circuits siding with the government and six opposed, the Supreme Court is widely expected to intervene. The administration asked the high court to take up the case last month. Both Thursday’s decisions explicitly called on the justices to settle the matter, with the Seventh Circuit’s dissent noting that “only the Supreme Court can bring uniformity.” The outcome will determine whether thousands of detainees can seek release while the government pursues its stated goal of roughly 2,000 immigration arrests per day.