Justice Department lawyers asked three Ninth Circuit judges in Pasadena, California, on October 22 to dissolve the Perez-Funez injunction, a court order in place for four decades that governs how immigration agents treat unaccompanied children, Courthouse News reported, as summarised by Immigration Analytics on October 23.

Source: Courthouse News via Immigration Analytics

A second report of the same Pasadena hearing, by Wansom Briefly, confirmed the panel, the arguments and the April ruling below. The panel did not signal how it would rule, and no decision was issued at the hearing.

Source: Wansom Briefly — Ninth Circuit hearing report

What the injunction requires

Under the order, agents may not accept a child's agreement to voluntary departure until the child has been advised of his or her rights and given a chance to reach a parent, relative or lawyer. The case began in 1981 as a class action over children allegedly pressed into signing voluntary departure forms they did not understand. The written advisal became Form I-770, Notice of Rights and Disposition.

The argument: a 1996 law against a 2008 law

The government argues that section 1252(f)(1), added by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, bars class-wide injunctions of this kind, citing the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in Garland v. Aleman Gonzalez. The children's lawyers, led by Public Counsel attorney Mark Rosenbaum, argue the injunction regulates procedures Congress set in the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, not the 1996 provisions.

At argument, Judge Lawrence VanDyke called one of Rosenbaum's points a 'blatant logical fallacy', Judge Patrick Bumatay pressed for a definition of 'collateral impact', and Judge Salvador Mendoza Jr. put his sharpest questions to the government's lawyer, Courthouse News reported.

Why April's ruling matters

In April, U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald in Los Angeles refused to end the injunction and found that DHS had violated it with a 'UAC Processing Pathway Advisal' read to children since September 2025. Fitzgerald wrote that the responsibilities of immigration officers when they encounter children are dictated by the TVPRA, not by the covered provisions of the 1996 law. A Ninth Circuit reversal would erase both the advisals and that script ruling. No agency has published how many children heard the 2025 script.