On November 25, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued an order in Maldonado Bautista v. Santacruz. The order certified a nationwide class of noncitizens who are being held in immigration detention and being denied access to a bond hearing based on the government’s allegation that they entered the United States without admission or inspection. The Court held that the government is subjecting them to unlawful mandatory detention (without bond) and that class members are eligible for release on bond under the immigration laws.

Under the Court’s order, class members are once again entitled to a bond hearing in immigration court before an immigration judge (“IJ”), who must consider whether they are suitable for release on bond while their removal proceedings are pending. This represents a return to prior policy under the Biden administration, restoring access to bond hearings for those who entered without inspection.

In December 2025, the Court issued an amended order reiterating that the Court was granting class certification and simultaneously entering final judgment on behalf of the class. In doing so, the Court declared that all class members are eligible for bond, effectively ending the practice of denying bond hearings and vacating the current administration’s July 8, 2025, no-bond memorandum.

Since the Court’s clarification order, there was a short period of time when some immigration judges have granted bond, in reliance on the Court’s final declaratory judgment as to the nationwide class. However, the practice has been halted since mid-January 2026, when IJs were again instructed to apply Yajure Hurtado and deny bond. Thus, class members must file federal habeas petitions to seek a bond hearing.

So how does all this back-and-forth affect real people facing immigration detention? The long and the short of it is this: while federal habeas petitions remain the most effective mechanism to challenge illegal mandatory detention of people being held without bond who entered without inspection, federal courts are increasingly pushing back against the DHS policy that categorically denies bond hearings to detained individuals who EWI’d.

In other words, bond hearings aren’t entirely back, but they’re not gone either. They’re more like a boomerang: thrown away by policy, only to keep coming back through the courts.