Trump's immigration crackdown is straining federal courts. Judges are raising the alarm
Source: The Independent
Monday 09 February 2026 13:04 EST
Federal judges around the country are scrambling to address a deluge of lawsuits from immigrants locked up under the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign.
Under past administrations, people with no criminal record could generally request a bond hearing before an immigration judge while their cases wound through immigration court unless they were stopped at the border. President Donald Trump 's White House reversed that policy in favor of mandatory detention.
Immigrants by the thousands have been turning to federal courts by using another legal tool: habeas corpus petitions. While the administration scored a major legal victory Friday, here's a look at how that's affecting federal courts and what some judges have done in response: Judges are raising the alarm
In one federal court district in Georgia, the enormous volume of habeas petitions has created “an administrative judicial emergency,” a judge wrote in a court order on Jan. 29. U.S. District Judge Clay Land in Columbus said the Trump administration was refusing to provide bond hearings to immigrants at Georgia's Stewart Detention Center despite his ”clear and definitive rulings" against mandatory detention. Instead, the court had to order the hearing in each individual case, wrote Land, a nominee of Republican President George W. Bush.
Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/donald-trump-president-joe-biden-department-of-homeland-security-minnesota-b2916919.html
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