Federal judge grants class-action status to New England migrants challenging bond hearing denials

Thousands of migrants detained by U.S. immigration authorities in New England won a major legal victory this week after a federal judge in Boston granted class-action status to their lawsuit against the Trump administration. The case challenges the government’s policy of holding certain noncitizens in mandatory detention without the possibility of a bond hearing.

U.S. District Judge Patti Saris, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, certified the class on Thursday, allowing the lawsuit to proceed on behalf of all similarly affected detainees in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, and New Hampshire. The judge previously ruled that the administration’s practice violated the Immigration and Nationality Act and ordered a bond hearing for the lead plaintiff, Salvadoran national Jose Arnulfo Guerrero Orellana.

The challenge to mandatory detention

According to the complaint, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Board of Immigration Appeals issued a decision in September supporting the administration’s interpretation of immigration law. That decision effectively denied bond hearings to migrants who entered the country without inspection, even if they had established residency in the U.S.

However, multiple federal courts across the country have found this practice unlawful in individual rulings. Judge Saris’s order marks one of the first times a court has expanded relief to a broader group of detainees.

“The proposed class shares a common question capable of classwide resolution because its members are all detained without a bond hearing pursuant to the same allegedly unlawful government policy,” Saris wrote in her ruling.

Case background

Guerrero Orellana, who entered the U.S. in 2013, was living in Massachusetts with his wife and young daughter when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained him in September during a traffic stop. He had been working as a landscaper. Following his arrest, his lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts filed suit, arguing that his detention without a bond hearing violated due process.

Judge Saris agreed earlier this month, rejecting the administration’s argument that all noncitizens who entered without inspection must remain detained during removal proceedings.

Broader implications

“This ruling recognizes the sheer scale of the problem,” said Dan McFadden, managing attorney at the ACLU of Massachusetts. “It’s a critical step toward securing due process for thousands of people in Massachusetts and across New England who have been and will be jailed without justification by ICE.”

The Justice Department has not yet commented on the decision.

The case, Guerrero Orellana v. Moniz (No. 1:25-cv-12664), follows a similar class-action ruling in Washington State, where U.S. District Judge Tiffany Cartwright recently declared that the local immigration court’s blanket denial of bond hearings was unlawful.

Immigrant rights advocates argue that the policy originated in Tacoma, Washington, before the Department of Homeland Security expanded it nationwide. The upcoming hearing scheduled for Monday in Boston could determine whether the federal government will be ordered to restore bond hearings to all affected detainees in New England.