Federal Judge Overturns Immigration Board Decision on Trump Detention Policy

Wednesday, February 18, 2026 at 9:17 PM

A California federal judge has struck down an immigration board's decision that supported the Trump administration's policy of holding detained immigrants without bond. The ruling came after the judge found the administration failed to follow her previous order declaring the detention policy illegal.

A California federal judge has overturned a decision by an immigration appeals board that had backed the Trump administration’s controversial detention practices on Thursday.

District Judge Sunshine Sykes, presiding in Riverside, California, nullified the Board of Immigration Appeals’ ruling that had supported holding thousands of individuals in mandatory custody without the possibility of bond release during the former administration’s immigration enforcement efforts.

The judge’s action came after she determined that the Trump administration had not followed through with compliance requirements from her previous court order, which had declared the detention policy to be unlawful.

The original policy had resulted in thousands of people being held in immigration detention facilities without the opportunity to seek release through posting bond while their cases moved through the immigration court system.

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