Judges keep ordering immigration hearings -- but say the results are often a sham
Source: Politico
03/06/2026 10:00 AM EST
For months, the Trump administration has been engaged in an unprecedented campaign to lock up thousands of immigrants with longstanding roots in the United States. And for months, aghast federal judges have ordered ICE to give them a chance to prove they can safely remain free while their deportation proceedings are pending.
Increasingly, however, judges are finding that the hearings they’re ordering — conducted by immigration judges who work for the Trump administration — have been fundamentally flawed or even pre-cooked, designed to result in findings of “danger to the community” or “flight risk” without a fair consideration of the evidence.
Some federal judges have required do-overs, and others have grown so skeptical of the administration’s intentions that they’ve ordered detainees released outright.
It happened last month in Rhode Island, where U.S. District Judge John McConnell, an Obama appointee, ordered the release of a man who was denied bond even though the administration presented no evidence against him. Instead, the immigration judge in his bond hearing relied on an “uncorroborated police report” — supplied by the detainee — in which he was accused of driving 90 mph in a 55 mph zone.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/06/immigration-case-hearings-judges-00815660