Immigration Industrial Complex Suffers Major Loss in Court
27th October 2026
Almost 90,000 immigrants have tried a legal maneuver to escape detention, but an appeals court ruling just significantly undermined that part of the Left’s anti-deportation strategy.
ProPublica has tracked 89,170 cases in which immigrants filed writs of habeas corpus, challenging the lawfulness of their detention or imprisonment. The scale is extraordinary. Immigrants filed more habeas cases during the first 13 months of Trump’s second term than during the previous three administrations combined.
The cases aren’t materializing in an institutional vacuum, either. A network of advocacy groups has developed litigation resources, turning habeas corpus into a major front in the fight over President Donald Trump’s deportation program.
However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit on Friday ruled that detention without a hearing does not violate the due process rights of immigrants.
“The ACLU and the Left oppose immigration detention because they know it often results in deportation,” Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, told the Daily Signal on Tuesday. “The Left opposes deportation because it erodes their political power.”