More than 400 federal judges since October have issued at least 4,421 rulings that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is holding immigrants illegally, according to a new analysis by Reuters.
“The decisions amount to a sweeping legal rebuke of Trump’s immigration crackdown. Yet the administration has continued jailing people indefinitely even after courts ruled the policy was illegal,” the news service reported.
Immigrant detainees have filed at least 20,200 federal lawsuits since President Donald Trump took office last year. Reuters said it tallied habeas cases by scouring the dockets of every federal case filed in more than two decades.
“The decisions amount to a sweeping legal rebuke of Trump’s immigration crackdown.”
“Other cases are pending, have been dismissed because the detainee was released, or were transferred to another judicial district, which would force immigrants to file a new case,” the news agency said, adding it was unable to find how many cases were re-filed or moved.
The trend in judicial setbacks for ICE comes amid the administration’s ongoing immigration deportation campaign that has resulted in nearly 70,000 detentions as of this month. That is up 75% from January 2025.
The surge in court defeats also stems from the administration’s insistence that judges abandon decades of legal precedent that immigrants already in the country can be freed on bond as they go through immigration court.
Thomas Johnston
“It is appalling that the government insists that this court should redefine or completely disregard the current law as it is clearly written,” said U.S. District Judge Thomas Johnston of West Virginia after ordering a Venezuelan detainee’s release.
But detentions aren’t the sole focus in the mass array of lawsuits Trump has faced since taking office.
Other actions have targeted efforts to round up refugees in Minnesota, to challenge agents’ use of administrative rather than judicial warrants in making arrests, to force ICE to allow Congressional inspections of detention facilities and to bar enforcement actions at houses of worship.
ICE has lost those and numerous other cases and, last month, a federal court in Minnesota threatened to hold ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons in contempt for continuing to detain immigrants without addressing at least 96 court orders.
“This list should give pause to anyone — no matter his or her political beliefs — who cares about the rule of law,” Chief District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz said in a Jan. 28 court order. “ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.”
“This list should give pause to anyone — no matter his or her political beliefs — who cares about the rule of law.”
Reuters found the pattern to be part of a “landslide of lawsuits” not solely aimed at capturing “the worst of the worst” immigrants, as the administration has repeatedly claimed.
“Within the span of a few days in January, lawyers filed habeas petitions for Liam Conejo, a 5-year-old Ecuadorean boy detained in the driveway of his Minnesota home; a Ukrainian man with a valid temporary humanitarian status who was detained on his way to work as a cable technician; a Salvadoran man married to a U.S. citizen and father of a 3-year-old autistic child who is a U.S. citizen; an Eritrean hospital worker with refugee status who was arrested after letting agents into his apartment complex; and a Venezuelan man who was arrested after dropping off his daughter at school. None had criminal records.”
Reuters’ investigation also uncovered the situation of two Venezuelan men, a father and son, arrested in Wisconsin in December. “The men are asylum seekers who entered the United States in August 2023. Both are authorized to work, their lawyer, Carrie Peltier, said. Peltier said they were stopped for ‘driving while brown.’”
Eric Tostrud
Even Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud took a dim view of the lack of evidence ICE had for detaining the men and of the expectation he would ignore legal precedent.
“This raises an issue of statutory interpretation that courts in this district have repeatedly considered and rejected, and it will be rejected here as well,” Tostrud said in his order.
Reuters said the administration’s legal strategy is straining federal attorneys, as well: “The rush of lawsuits is forcing the U.S. Justice Department offices to divert attorneys who would normally prosecute criminal cases to respond to habeas cases.”
The analysis identified more than 700 Justice Department lawyers involved in immigration cases, with five of them appearing in court records for more than 1,000 habeas cases.
The situation is in part to blame for the logjam of cases that is leaving immigrants wrongly detained, according to the investigation.
Nusrat Choudhury
U.S. District Judge Nusrat Choudhury in New York complained that “ICE violated two ‘clear and unambiguous orders’ by flying a man to New Mexico for detention while falsely claiming he was in New Jersey and could be brought to a court hearing.’”
The administration, meanwhile, has continually claimed to be the victim in these cases.
“‘If rogue judges followed the law in adjudicating cases and respected the government’s obligation to properly prepare cases, there wouldn’t be an ‘overwhelming’ habeas caseload or concern over DHS following orders,’” Justice Department spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre is quoted in the report as saying.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin added that it was “‘no surprise’” that lawsuits are piling up, “‘especially after many activist judges have attempted to thwart President Trump from fulfilling the American people’s mandate for mass deportations.’”
While the Trump administration has claimed a mandate for mass deportations, numerous national polls show the public does not support what ICE is doing.