Washington—The US Supreme Court has agreed to review one of the major legal disputes surrounding the Trump administration's immigration policy: the federal government's power to detain, without a bail hearing, immigrants who entered the country without authorization and who subsequently face deportation proceedings.
The case, Rhoney v. Barbosa da Cunha, arose from the
detention of Ricardo Aparecido Barbosa da Cunha, a Brazilian citizen who
illegally entered the United States around 2004 or 2005 and remained in the
country for years. He was detained by immigration agents in September 2025.
The Trump administration argues that federal law allows for
the mandatory detention of these immigrants while their deportation proceedings
are resolved, without an initial hearing before an immigration judge to
determine whether they can be released on bail.
The Department of Homeland Security adopted this
interpretation in 2025, modifying a practice applied for decades to certain
immigrants already in the United States.
The government argues that the measure allows it to enforce
immigration laws and close what it considers loopholes that had allowed some
immigrants to remain free while their cases proceeded.
The Supreme Court's decision will have potentially broad
implications for thousands of people in deportation proceedings and could
define the extent of the federal government's authority to detain them while
their cases are pending.
The case will be heard during the Supreme Court's new
session, which began in October.