Judges have ruled against the Trump administration over 16,000 times ever since the issuance of a bombshell immigration memo on July 8, 2025.
On that day, the acting head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sent out a department-wide memo to ICE officers announcing a change in the rules for holding illegals who entered the U.S. without permission, regardless of whether they’d crossed the border years ago or more recently.
At issue is a 30-year old law that had — until now — required detention *without bond* for recent border crossers. The (second) Trump administration said that law actually applies to anyone without permission to be in the U.S., even if they have resided for years without… pic.twitter.com/hTR4zVytUx
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) August 10, 2026
Prior to the issuance of the memo, if ICE agents arrested an illegal who’d been living in the U.S. for a while, the illegal had the right to ask an immigration judge for a bond hearing so they could prove they weren’t a flight risk.
The memo changed the rules so that almost every illegal who entered without official permission was an “applicant for admission,” meaning they were subject to stricter rules like ones prohibiting bond hearings and forcing them to remain in detention while their case was pending.
This was a radical change in policy.
“Every prior president applied mandatory detention without bond only to people apprehended soon after crossing the border or who were deemed to be dangerous, not for those who had built law-abiding lives — married U.S. citizens, had children, held jobs, paid taxes — since they arrived,” Politico notes.
As a result of the change in rules, a large number of illegal aliens were apprehended. In response, immigration activists rushed to file court cases on their behalf. And thanks to judges like Judge Fred Biery and Judge Troy Nunley, many of the illegal aliens were successful in their court cases.
“The third branch of government is saying no, we’re not going to do it this way,” Biery defiantly told Politico in an interview.
“I didn’t go into it saying, ‘I’m going to free all these people,’ but … we’ve got to get to these cases right now. Get to the cases right away,” Nunley added.
“Biery and Nunley are among the 469 judges who concluded that the policy contained in the July 8, 2025 ICE memo was an illegal distortion of long-settled detention policy,” according to Politico.
In a statement to Politico, the Justice Department dismissed Biery, Nunley, and others like them as “activist judges.”
“This administration remains fully determined to carry out the president’s immigration priorities,” the department insisted. “Legal challenges from activist judges will not deter the Department of Justice from enforcing the law and restoring order to our immigration system.”
The illegals were also aided by U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, whom Politico notes was the chief of Minnesota’s federal district court before July 1.
During Operation Metro Surge, a large-scale federal immigration enforcement operation that began in December in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, he spent his time “glued to his phone” so he could assist illegal aliens who were being targeted by ICE by filing habeas petitions on their behalf.
And this regardless of their crimes and the severity of said crimes:
Operation Metro Surge is making good on catching and NOT releasing!
This Honduran national and criminal illegal alien is wanted by the Saint Paul Sheriff’s for Driving While Intoxicated. But because of sanctuary policies, we won’t turn him over, as he’ll then be released back… pic.twitter.com/BtBO0ZuP8h
— El Centro Sector Border Patrol (@USBPChiefELC) January 26, 2026
“Schiltz began staffing his office in shifts so that someone was always available to receive habeas petitions,” Politico notes. “The goal … wasn’t to simply rubber stamp victories for ICE detainees, but to ensure their claims were considered before it was too late [and they were deported].”
“We wanted to make sure they got heard,” Schiltz maintained.
“All of our judges, we were up in the wee hours of the morning doing these cases because we had never seen these before. It was all hands on deck,” Nunley, an Obama appointee, added.
Despite these rogue judges, there are some like U.S. District Judge Joshua Divine who are on board with the Trump administration.
“Although I was a new judge, it never bothered me to have to disagree with hundreds of other rulings,” he told Politico in defense of his rulings siding with the administration.
“My oath demands that I rule according to what I understand the text to say. As a textualist judge, I stress to my clerks never to be afraid to stand alone. Not too long ago, textualism itself was a minority view,” he added.
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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