As the president looks to ramp up deportations, more immigrants than ever are claiming their detention is illegal.
SAN ANTONIO — A surge of detained immigrants is challenging their confinement in federal court as the Trump administration moves forward with expanded deportation efforts, according to court data and legal experts.
Texas — especially the Western District of Texas — is seeing the highest volume of these challenges, known as habeas corpus petitions, which argue a person is being held unlawfully or in violation of constitutional rights.
A review of federal filings shows nearly 1,000 habeas petitions have been filed in the Western District of Texas since December, with roughly half submitted in January alone. During the same period a year earlier, only one such petition was filed.
Habeas petitions ask a federal judge to review whether the government has legal authority to detain someone. Immigration attorneys say the spike follows a policy shift requiring many immigrants accused of entering the country illegally to remain in custody while their cases proceed.
“It is a tsunami of habeas petitions,” said Daniel Caudillo, a former immigration judge and current professor at Texas Tech University School of Law.
Caudillo said more than 20,000 petitions have been filed nationwide since last fall, straining government attorneys and immigrant advocates alike.
“These petitions allege that the federal government is detaining somebody unlawfully or in violation of the Constitution,” he said.
One high-profile case that drew national attention involved a father and his 5-year-old son held at a family detention center in Dilley, southwest of San Antonio, after being taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minnesota. A federal judge granted their habeas petition, ordering their release while legal proceedings continue.
Nationwide, Caudillo said hundreds of judges have ruled against the administration’s detention position, while a smaller number have sided with the government.
Earlier this month, however, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit backed the administration’s interpretation of the law in a key ruling on detention authority.
The 2-1 ruling allows the government to deny a bond hearing for immigrants who entered the country illegally. This impacts Texas, Lousiana and Mississippi.
“It comes down to statutory interpretation,” Caudillo said.
Following that decision, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted on X that judges had wrongly ordered releases. She wrote that courts relied on what she called false claims that DHS was breaking the law.
Despite the appellate ruling, attorneys continue filing habeas petitions in San Antonio and elsewhere. Legal experts say the case could be reheard or ultimately reviewed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
Caudillo said the growing number of cases highlights broader constitutional questions.
“All individuals in the United States have a right to constitutional protections and due process,” he said, “regardless of their immigration status.”
The spike in filings is adding pressure to an immigration court system that was already facing significant backlogs before the latest wave of detention challenges.