The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday in Ignacio Sosnava Rodriguez v. Sylvester M. Ortega that three detained immigrants who entered the United States illegally and were never formally admitted are not constitutionally entitled to bond hearings while they await deportation. The full court held that the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment does not give them that right. “The Constitution does not entitle them to a bond hearing,” the court wrote.
The men were detained under the mandatory-detention provision of federal immigration law. The court said their years or decades of residence in the United States, along with ties to their communities, did not create a constitutional right to seek release on bond. The ruling follows the Fifth and Eighth Circuits’ view that such immigrants remain “applicants for admission” under Section 1225 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Nine other federal appeals courts have ruled the other way. They have said Section 1226 applies instead, giving immigrants in that position a path to seek release on bond while removal proceedings continue. That 9-2 circuit split is now before the U.S. Supreme Court in Rhoney v. Barbosa da Cunha, a case from the Second Circuit.
Barbosa da Cunha is a Brazilian national who entered the country illegally roughly two decades ago and was detained in 2025. If the Supreme Court sides with the Second Circuit, he would have a path to seek release on bond. Such a ruling would likely affect the three men in Rodriguez by resolving the statutory question before courts need to decide the constitutional one.
Judge Leslie Southwick pointed to that possibility in dissent, writing that if the Supreme Court says the Fifth Circuit read the statute wrongly, “the constitutional issue we address here will have far less significance.” The Supreme Court agreed earlier this month to hear Rhoney but has not scheduled oral arguments. Its ruling will set a national rule, including for Ohio, on whether federal immigration law permits mandatory detention in these cases without an ordinary bond hearing.
