ACLU Slams New Trump Attack on Birthright Citizenship  

The claimants detail being unlawfully detained, denied medical care, or targeted simply for speaking out or recording what they saw. Their experiences reveal a dangerous pattern of abuse that threatens the rights and safety of us all.

NEW YORK — Two more federal appeals courts this week rejected the Trump administration’s new policy subjecting millions of immigrants to mandatory detention without access to bond hearings. Both the Ninth Circuit and Seventh Circuit issued July 30 decisions in American Civil Liberties Union lawsuits. Read the Ninth Circuit ruling here. Read the Seventh Circuit ruling here. The rulings reflect similar decisions from four other federal appeals courts, as well as those issued by hundreds of district court judges who have found the policy unlawful. For decades, immigrants in removal proceedings who were detained by the government have generally had the right to seek release through a bond hearing before an immigration judge. In mid-2025, the Trump administration suddenly adopted a new radical reinterpretation of the immigration laws and declared that anyone who entered without inspection must be detained without access to bond. Among those who were affected were people who came as children and are eligible for legal status, even those with long-pending immigration applications who have been waiting years due to administrative backlogs. “The courts have repeatedly ruled against the Trump administration’s radical reinterpretation of our country’s detention laws,” said My Khanh Ngo, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, who argued the Seventh Circuit appeal. “The law is clear: The administration can’t cruelly lock up people this way without giving them the basic due process of a bond hearing. Period.”

SEATTLE — Another federal appeals court has rejected the Trump administration’s new policy subjecting millions of immigrants to mandatory detention without access to bond hearings. Today’s ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit stems from a lawsuit involving the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and the American Civil Liberties Union. The ruling joins similar decisions from four other federal appeals courts and hundreds of district court judges in finding the policy unlawful. For decades, immigrants in removal proceedings who were detained by the government have generally had the right to seek release by an immigration judge. In mid-2025, the Trump administration suddenly adopted a new radical reinterpretation of the immigration laws and declared that anyone who entered without inspection must be detained without access to bond. Among those who were affected were people eligible for legal status, even those with long-pending immigration applications who have been waiting years due to administrative backlogs. They include Ramon Rodriguez Vazquez, the named plaintiff in this case. He had no criminal record and was arrested at his home in Washington state where he has lived for more than 15 years with his wife, four children, and now grandchildren. The following is reaction to today’s ruling: “This ruling restores the right to a bond hearing for class members and all persons like Mr. Rodriguez detained in the Ninth Circuit, while they go through this lengthy and difficult process,” said Matt Adams, legal director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. “And just as vital, it upholds the rule of law, making clear the administration cannot unilaterally change the law.” “The courts have once again ruled the Trump administration’s cruel and radical reinterpretation of our country’s detention laws cannot stand. We are thrilled for our clients and their families,” said My Khanh Ngo, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. The ruling is here.

WASHINGTON – Today, in a press briefing hosted by the Defending Our Neighbors Fund, frontline legal service providers across the country warned that legal representation for thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children is at risk of total collapse as the federal contract that funds immigrant children’s access to lawyers expires on July 31, 2026. Since November 2025, the Trump Administration has withheld payment from legal service providers representing unaccompanied children in an effort to force them to turn over sensitive, privileged information about the children they represent. In response, the Defending Our Neighbors Fund has provided emergency funding to support several frontline legal service providers’ ability to continue representing their clients; however, without immediate federal action to renew the federal contract, tens of thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children are at imminent risk of losing access to legal representation and will be forced to self-represent against trained government attorneys. Michael Lukens, Executive Director of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, said: “The government knows exactly what it is doing. A child’s best chance at due process is to have an attorney by their side—it’s why this program exists. By refusing to pay for services already provided, the government is deliberately undermining the very protections these children are entitled to.” Melissa Lopez, Executive Director of Estrella del Paso, said: “Over the course of 20 years, this network of legal service providers has developed a unique level of expertise working with children who have experienced trauma. We have spent 20 years building this institutional knowledge that we are going to lose on Friday. There is no replacing the organizations providing these services. We know what happens to children that go to court without an attorney. In one word, it is deportation. The government is trying to eliminate our work and this program because they know that without attorneys, children will be deported.” Meena Shah, Managing Director of Legal Services at The Door, said: “Children could not need legal representation more than they do right now. Judges are moving forward, with or without representation. They will order children deported without representation, starting Monday morning, across the United States. None of us want to abandon our clients, and we will do our utmost to fight for their lawful pursuit of a fair proceeding.” Lindsay Toczylowski, CEO and Co-Founder of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said: “When you take lawyers away from children, you do not just take away legal representation—you remove one of the few meaningful checks on government misconduct. The attacks on immigrant children and their advocates are not an isolated policy failure or a simple contract dispute. It is part of a broader effort to dismantle the legal protections, oversight mechanisms, and constitutional safeguards that stand in the way of unchecked government power.” Mayra Peters-Quintero, Executive Director at Abundant Futures Fund and Co-Lead at Defending Our Neighbors Fund, said: “Justice shouldn’t have a price tag. It should be available to anyone, regardless of age or income. We launched the Defending Our Neighbors Fund because we understood that the American public, regardless of political orientation, agrees on this basic principle. Yet countless children–even as young as babies–must face trained prosecutors without a lawyer by their side and the crisis is about to get much worse. Through the Fund, everyday Americans are stepping up to help fund legal access, turning their outrage into action, and despair into defense.” ### Created in partnership with United We Dream Network (UWD) and the ACLU, The Defending Our Neighbors Fund is hosted at Abundant Futures Fund, a fiscally sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. The Fund is focused on fundraising, identifying grantees, and rapidly distributing resources to organizations working on the frontlines to support immigrant communities through legal representation and, when possible, bond assistance.