The US Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether immigrants who have lived in the United States for years can be held in detention without any bond hearing while their deportation cases proceed, the Associated Press reported. The justices granted review on October 1 in Rhoney v. Barbosa da Cunha, a case that tests a central pillar of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

At the centre of the case is Ricardo Aparecido Barbosa da Cunha, a citizen of Brazil who, authorities say, entered the United States illegally about two decades ago and applied for asylum in 2016, according to court records reported by the AP and Reuters. After immigration officers arrested him in Massachusetts in September 2025, an immigration judge ruled his detention was mandatory and refused to hold a bond hearing at all.

Barbosa da Cunha challenged that ruling, and the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit agreed with him, ruling on April 28, 2026 that his case is governed by the part of immigration law that allows bond, not the provision the government used to deny him one. An immigration judge later found he was neither a flight risk nor a danger and ordered him released on bond, according to the reporting.

The dispute turns on a July 2025 policy shift. For roughly three decades, people arrested inside the country could generally ask an immigration judge for release on bond while their cases were pending. The administration reinterpreted the law to treat anyone who ever entered illegally — even decades ago — as an applicant for admission who must be detained, with no bond hearing, for as long as removal proceedings take.

Federal appeals courts are split. Most courts to consider the issue have found the no-bond policy violates federal law, while the Fifth and Eighth Circuits have ruled that people accused of entering and remaining illegally must be detained while their cases are pending, Reuters reported. CNN Supreme Court analyst Steve Vladeck noted the government's reading has produced more than 20,000 rulings in lower courts, the overwhelming majority against the administration.

The stakes reach far beyond one case. The number of people in immigration detention rose to more than 65,000 in July 2026, up from about 40,000 at the end of the previous administration, according to figures cited in Guardian live coverage of the announcement. The court is expected to hear arguments early next year and decide by late June. For diaspora families, the ruling will determine a basic question: whether a long-time resident picked up by ICE gets to ask a judge for release, or waits in detention until the case ends.