Remember when Trump promised he'd undo Biden's border policies and kick off mass deportations? Well, the guy actually followed through, which in politics is roughly as rare as a unicorn sighting at a budget hearing. Democrats have been throwing every legal roadblock imaginable at him, cherry picking friendly courts like they're shopping for avocados. But as Conservative Brief reported, the administration just racked up another courtroom W that has to sting.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals dropped a ruling late Tuesday declaring that people residing in the country unlawfully do not possess a constitutional entitlement to walk around freely while their deportation cases are being processed. Chief Judge Jennifer Elrod, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote the opinion that reversed a lower court's decision granting bond hearings to three individuals held by ICE. The lower court had basically said "let them go," and the Fifth Circuit said "absolutely not."
Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate was practically doing a victory lap, declaring that unauthorized immigrants lack any constitutional privilege to "roam free" during removal proceedings. The man used those exact words, and honestly, "roam free" makes it sound like they're wild horses on the plains of Montana.
The whole thing started with a guy named Ignacio Sosnava Rodriguez, who got picked up during a traffic stop in 2025. He'd been living in Texas for 22 years and argued that holding him without a bond hearing violated his Fifth Amendment due process rights. A lower court agreed with him, applying some fancy Supreme Court balancing test from Mathews v. Eldridge. The Fifth Circuit looked at that analysis, shook its head, and denied his petition without even needing the full bench to weigh in. Two other individuals in ICE custody, Alejandro Villegas Angel and Miguel Angel Gomez, also had their lower court victories put on ice, pun absolutely intended.
But wait, there's more. Also on Tuesday, a federal appeals court overturned a 2025 ruling that had ordered the release of pro-Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi from immigration detention. He was among several non-citizen students placed in removal proceedings after protesting Israel's military operations in Gaza. An Obama-appointed judge in Vermont had decided Mahdawi deserved the same First Amendment protections as American citizens, but the Second Circuit basically told that judge he didn't even have jurisdiction over the matter because immigration court should have handled it first. Whoops.
And because this administration never takes a day off from making headlines, VP JD Vance and the Labor Department's inspector general also announced a fresh investigation into potential work visa fraud by foreign nationals. Vance showed up at an anti-fraud event in Milwaukee to announce that dozens of subpoenas had already gone out, promising that American jobs will go to American workers and not, as he colorfully phrased it, "foreign fraudsters."
So if you're keeping score at home, that's multiple courtroom victories in a single week. At this rate, the administration's legal team might need a trophy case.
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