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Fact check: Which courts have ruled against ICE due to due process violations?
Executive Summary
Several federal courts have recently ruled against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on due process and detention-conditions grounds, including the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, among others. These decisions include preliminary injunctions, temporary restraining orders, bond-hearing orders, and at least one immediate release order that together portray a pattern of judicial findings that ICE’s detention practices violated detainees’ constitutional rights and statutory due process protections [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. The rulings span local and regional federal courts and address both conditions and procedural denials.
1. Why the Southern District of New York’s Orders Matter — a High-Profile Challenge to Conditions
The Southern District of New York (SDNY) issued a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining orders targeting ICE detention conditions at 26 Federal Plaza after finding practices amounted to unconstitutional and inhumane treatment, and ordered operational changes including notice of rights and confidential legal calls for detainees [1] [5] [2]. Advocacy groups framed the SDNY rulings as class-level relief affecting detainees at a major immigration courthouse, and the court’s action signals judicial willingness to police facility conditions as part of due process analysis. The SDNY decisions were reported in mid-September 2025 and explicitly described actions as violations of constitutional protections [1] [2].
2. The Western District of Washington Decision — Procedural Due Process and Bond Rights
A federal judge in the Western District of Washington ordered a bond hearing for a wrongfully detained litigant in April 2025, finding ICE’s detention practices deprived individuals of statutory and constitutional process when the agency denied bond hearings through misclassification under § 1225 [4]. That court’s ruling has been cited as part of a broader pattern: multiple federal courts have found the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) approach to classifying certain entrants unlawful when it was used to avoid bond hearings, framing the issue as systemic denial of procedural protections across districts [4].
3. Smaller but Potent Rulings — Immediate Releases and Individual Remedies
Individual federal orders have produced immediate relief in particular cases, such as the release of Paulo Cesar Gamez Lira, a DACA recipient detained 42 days, after a federal court concluded his continued detention was improper and violated due process [3]. These case-specific rulings demonstrate courts using traditional habeas and constitutional review to overturn detention decisions and emphasize that individual rights can produce direct judicial remedies despite larger policy disputes; they also provide templates litigants and advocates can point to when challenging comparable detentions [3].
4. National Litigation Trends — Class Actions and Challenges to BIA Guidance
Civil-rights groups have filed class-action lawsuits arguing widespread denial of due process in immigration proceedings, alleging the BIA’s precedential decisions were being used to wrongly classify and detain people without bond hearings [4] [5]. These filings synthesize multiple district rulings into a national narrative, arguing that judicial decisions in Maine, Washington, and New York—among others—undermine the BIA’s approach and support classwide relief. The litigation strategy frames judicial rulings as inconsistent with agency action and seeks sweeping procedural remedies to correct what plaintiffs call systemic misclassification [4].
5. How Courts Framed the Violations — Conditions Versus Process, and Overlapping Remedies
Courts have drawn a distinction between rulings grounded in conditions-of-confinement violations (SDNY orders focusing on unsanitary and unsafe detention conditions at 26 Federal Plaza) and those grounded in procedural due process (Western District of Washington and other decisions ordering bond hearings or release), yet judges often saw both issues as interrelated when prolonged, indefinite detention compounded constitutional harm [1] [2] [4]. The remedies have varied accordingly: injunctive relief and operational mandates for conditions cases, and bond hearings or immediate release in procedural cases, showing courts can and do craft tailored solutions [1] [3] [5].
6. Competing Narratives and Legal Stakes — What Advocates Emphasize Versus Government Posture
Advocacy groups frame the rulings as validation of long-standing claims that ICE detention practices deny basic due process, urging systemic corrective measures and expanded access to counsel [5]. The government and agency supporters, while not directly quoted in these analyses, typically argue the agency has statutory authority to detain pending immigration processing and would contest broad readings of constitutional protection that limit detention discretion—creating a tension between statutory enforcement and constitutional safeguards that courts are resolving unevenly across districts [4].
7. What the Patchwork of Rulings Means Going Forward — Litigation Momentum and Limits
These recent rulings reflect momentum—multiple federal courts have found ICE action unlawful in particular contexts, producing injunctions, release orders, and bond hearings—but the decisions are regionally produced and not yet consolidated into a single controlling precedent [1] [4]. Plaintiffs are pushing class actions to convert district-level wins into nationwide relief, while the agency may seek appellate review; the immediate practical effect is improved conditions and procedural opportunities for some detainees, but nationwide uniformity depends on appellate and possibly Supreme Court resolution [4] [5].