Over 100 judges have ruled against this Trump policy — including 12 of his own appointees
U.S. President Donald Trump listens to members of the media on board Air Force One en route to the U.S., October 30, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
President Donald Trump continues to lose in court over one of his administration's most controversial policies, and even judges Trump himself nominated don't agree with him.
Politico's Kyle Cheney reported Friday that there are more than 100 federal judges who have issued at least 200 decisions that the administration’s systematic detention of immigrants facing possible deportation "appeared to violate their rights or was just flatly illegal." Cheney found that judges appointed by every president since Ronald Reagan have disagreed with the policy from the bench, including 12 of Trump's own appointed judges. This even includes judges from Trump's second term like U.S. District Judge Kyle Dudek, who officially began his lifelong term at the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida last month.
"Courts around the country have since rejected the government’s new interpretation," Dudek wrote in a Wednesday decision. "This Court now joins the consensus."
As Cheney reported, the detention policy began on July 8, of this year when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reversed a 30-year precedent and began incarcerating all immigrants facing deportation, even if they had lived in the U.S. for decades and have a clean criminal record. In addition to detaining immigrants, the ICE policy also doesn't allow immigrants to request a hearing with an immigration judge to request being released on bond.
According to Politico, Trump appointees Terry Doughty (from the Western District of Louisiana), Nancy Brasel (from the District of Minnesota), J.P. Hanlon (from the Southern District of Indiana) and Jason Pulliam (from the Western District of Texas) have also issued decisions against the policy. In a late October ruling, Judge Pulliam ruled that ICE deprived one immigrant of his due process rights without any "individualized assessment" of his circumstances.
Cheney's analysis found that most rulings came from judges appointed by Democratic presidents like Joe Biden (50 judges), Barack Obama (31) and Bill Clinton (6), though 12 judges appointed by George W. Bush, one appointed by George H.W. Bush and two Ronald Reagan appointees have also opposed the policy — in addition to the 12 Trump-backed judges. Only two judges sided with ICE's automatic detention policy: One Obama appointee, and one Trump appointee.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defended the legality of ICE's automatic detention policy by noting that it was recently upheld by the Board of Immigration Appeals — which is under the oversight of the Trump administration.
Click here to read Cheney's full article in Politico.
