A federal judge in California has rebuked the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, accusing it of trampling legal limits and spreading fear well beyond undocumented communities.
In a ruling issued late Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes said the administration’s mass deportation push had not only sidestepped federal law but had also inflicted broader harm. Referring to the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, she wrote that the executive branch had “extended its violence on its own citizens.”
“The threats posed by the executive branch cannot be viewed in isolation,” Sykes, who sits in Riverside, California, said in the decision.
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At the center of the dispute is the administration’s continued enforcement of mandatory detention for large numbers of immigrants. In December, Sykes ruled that the policy unlawfully blocked many detainees from seeking release while their cases were pending. On Wednesday, she concluded that her earlier order had been ignored.
She directed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to notify eligible detainees that they may qualify for bond and to give them access to a phone within an hour so they can contact an attorney. She also vacated a September immigration court ruling that the administration had relied on to justify keeping the mandatory detention framework in place.
The White House declined to comment directly, referring inquiries to the Department of Homeland Security, according to AP’s report. In a statement, the department argued that the Supreme Court has “repeatedly overruled” lower courts on mandatory detention and defended its position.
“ICE has the law and the facts on its side, and it adheres to all court decisions until it ultimately gets them shot down by the highest court in the land,” the statement said.
Before the policy shift, immigrants without criminal records were generally allowed to request bond hearings before an immigration judge, unless they had been stopped at the border. That practice was reversed under President Donald Trump’s administration, effectively shutting off a key path to temporary release.
The response was swift. Thousands of detainees turned to federal courts, filing separate habeas corpus petitions in search of release. According to federal court records analyzed by the Associated Press, more than 20,000 such cases have been filed since Trump’s inauguration.
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While many judges have granted those petitions, some later determined that the administration had failed to carry out orders requiring release or other relief.
In Minnesota, a federal judge on Wednesday held a Trump administration lawyer in contempt of court, citing the government’s failure to return identification documents to an immigrant who had already been ordered released.
In New Jersey, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz this week ordered the administration to detail how it ensures compliance with court directives in his district. He noted that officials missed court-ordered deadlines for bond hearings in 12 out of roughly 550 cases since December 5.
“Judicial orders should never be violated,” Farbiarz wrote.
Sykes, nominated by President Joe Biden, first found in November and again in December that the mandatory detention policy conflicted with congressional statute. She applied her ruling nationwide, but the administration continued denying bond hearings.
In her latest opinion, she said withholding due process from immigrants “harms their families, communities, and the fabric of this very nation.” She also rejected the administration’s portrayal of its crackdown as a campaign focused on dangerous offenders, writing that most of those arrested did not match that profile.
“Americans have expressed deep concerns over unlawful, wanton acts by the executive branch,” she wrote. “Beyond its terror against noncitizens, the executive branch has extended its violence on its own citizens, killing two American citizens— Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota.”
Matt Adams, an attorney representing plaintiffs in the case before Sykes, said he believes the ruling could mark the end of mandatory detention as currently practiced.
“Certainly in the normal course of things, the immigration judges would return to granting bond hearings,” he stated.
