Supreme Court to rule on Trump immigration detentions as ICE faces lawsuit

What is the Supreme Court case about?

The US Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether the Trump administration can indefinitely detain undocumented immigrants who are waiting for their deportation hearings. The case challenges a major policy shift introduced last year, which stripped migrants of their ability to seek release on bond.

For decades, people living in the US illegally could be released back into their communities while their legal cases progressed, provided they were not considered dangerous or a flight risk. The Trump administration reinterpreted the law to mandate detention for any migrant who entered the country illegally, regardless of how long they had lived there.

At the heart of the challenge is Ricardo Aparecido Barbosa da Cunha, a Brazilian citizen who has lived in Massachusetts for more than 20 years. He owns a construction business, has a wife and two American-born children, and has no criminal record. Last year, immigration agents arrested him on his way to work and sent him to a detention centre in Buffalo, New York, where he was denied a bond hearing.

How have lower courts ruled?

So far, the administration's legal argument has struggled in the courts. Both a federal district court and an appeals court sided with Barbosa da Cunha, ordering that he be given a bond hearing.

They are not alone. More than 500 district judges and nine out of 11 federal appeals courts have rejected the administration's reading of the law. They have repeatedly ruled that the mandatory detention statute only applies to migrants caught at ports of entry, like the southern border, rather than long-term residents picked up inside the country.

This is the second major immigration case the Supreme Court has added to its schedule this week, following its decision to review the administration's 'third-country' deportation policy.

Why is the government being sued over a fatal shooting?

As the court battles intensify, the administration is also facing major legal action over its enforcement tactics. The family of Renee Good, a 37-year-old American citizen shot dead by an immigration agent in Minneapolis, has launched two lawsuits.

Good was killed on 7 January during a large-scale immigration sweep. Officers claimed she tried to run them over during a traffic stop, but witnesses disputed that she had tried to attack anyone. Her death sparked weeks of protests in Minneapolis, eventually leading to the withdrawal of hundreds of federal agents from the city and the removal of the regional operations head, Greg Bovino.

One lawsuit filed by her brother, Brent Ganger, and partner, Becca Good, accuses the government of assault, negligence, and false imprisonment under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The second lawsuit directly targets the ICE agent who shot her, Jonathan Ross, alongside senior political figures including White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and border tsar Tom Homan, alleging a conspiracy to interfere with civil rights.

White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis dismissed the lawsuits as 'baseless' and said the administration would defend them vigorously. According to the Associated Press, at least 10 people have been killed in encounters with immigration officers since Trump's second term began in January 2025.