A federal appeals court has dealt a significant setback to the Trump administration’s approach to detaining unauthorized immigrants, ruling that many detainees held within the United States’ interior — as opposed to those caught at the border — should have had a chance to seek release while their deportation cases moved through the system.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found that for more than three decades, the federal government treated immigrants detained inside the country differently than those apprehended right at the border. Immigrants caught crossing the border can be held and removed quickly, often without ever appearing before a judge. But those picked up elsewhere in the country have traditionally been given the option to post bond and remain with their families while their cases play out in court.
That distinction, the court said, has been essentially erased under the current administration, which has applied the same rigid detention standards to both groups regardless of how long someone has lived in the U.S. The result has been overcrowded detention facilities and a surge of release petitions flooding federal courts, including a wave of cases out of San Diego.
“Some of these detained aliens have resided in the United States for lengthy periods,” wrote 9th Circuit Judge Daniel Bress, a Trump appointee, in the majority opinion. Bress acknowledged that federal immigration statutes contain conflicting language on the issue, but said the historical practice of multiple administrations settled the question.
“We have 30 years of action — the government actively treating unadmitted aliens present in the interior of the country as entitled to bond hearings,” Bress wrote.
The case originated with immigrants detained in the Seattle area, but the ruling applies broadly across the West, including California. The court’s 2-1 decision reflects a broader split among federal judges nationwide on the issue, and legal observers say the disagreement all but guarantees the U.S. Supreme Court will eventually take up the case to settle it for good.
For Southern California, where immigration detention facilities and federal courts have absorbed much of the fallout from the administration’s enforcement policies, the ruling could bring some relief to detainees who have long argued they deserve a bond hearing rather than indefinite detention.
In other regional news, Republican Rep. David Valadao is bracing for another tough reelection fight in California’s 22nd Congressional District, which covers parts of the Central Valley. Though Valadao currently holds a fundraising edge over Democratic challenger Randy Villegas, political observers say his path back to Washington is far from secure.
Valadao, a dairy farmer by trade, has built his political brand around bipartisanship and remains the last House Republican who voted to impeach Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. First elected in 2012, he lost his seat once before, during the Democratic wave of 2018 that swept through California during Trump’s first midterm election.
Democrats are hoping to recreate that momentum this cycle, betting that voter frustration over tariffs and inflation will work against Valadao, who also cast a deciding vote in favor of Trump’s federal budget package — legislation that cut $28.4 billion from California’s Medicaid program.
Meanwhile, UC San Diego has ended its participation in a federal grant program that funneled money to campus police in exchange for assistance to Border Patrol operations, following reporting that exposed the decade-long arrangement. Students had pushed back forcefully after learning of the partnership, sending complaints to administrators, organizing a February walkout, and threatening a public rally.
University officials have not directly confirmed the decision, but internal emails from a vice chancellor indicated in March that the school planned to drop out of the program and would not reapply. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office, which oversees the grant’s operations, confirmed in May that UC San Diego would no longer take part in future rounds of funding.
In Sacramento, Gov. Gavin Newsom has named a new director to lead the state’s Professional Fiduciaries Bureau, filling a post that sat vacant for two years. The appointment of Nicole Dragoo, who previously served as the agency’s licensing chief, comes after reporting revealed the bureau had struggled to prevent conflicts of interest and curb abuses within the fiduciary industry.
Original source: CalMatters
