Federal Court orders ICE to release seven detainees after DHS fails to comply with immigration bond ruling

LAS VEGAS – A federal court has stated that it will not “ratify the Government’s lawless conduct” and ordered the release of seven individuals from ICE custody on their own recognizance after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) refused to comply with the Court’s orders in a successful legal challenge brought forward by the ACLU of Nevada. In a March 2026 ruling, Judge Richard Boulware II determined that DHS’s mandatory detention policies violated federal law and vacated those policies under the Administrative Procedure Act. As a result of the ruling, people affected by the policies were set to seek bond hearings.

In a new order from a challenge brought on behalf of seven people who argued that DHS was skirting the Court’s orders, Boulware condemned the federal government’s refusal to comply with court orders and found that DHS was engaging in “open defiance.” Boulware also stated that the federal government’s conduct was not limited to the Jacobo-Ramirez decision, pointing to a broader “systemic pattern of noncompliance” in related detention challenges before the Court. Boulware’s rulings come in the midst of the ACLU of Nevada and other immigrants' rights advocates' continued challenges to the federal government’s mass detention and deportation campaigns.

The lawsuit brought on behalf of the seven detainees is Suarez v. Balaam, Case No. 2:26-cv-01366. The ACLU of Nevada’s class action lawsuit is Jacobo-Ramirez v. Mullin, Case No. 2:25-cv-02136.

ACLU of Nevada executive director Athar Haseebullah said:

“The ACLU of Nevada, alongside our partners at the UNLV Immigration Clinic, brought forth a class action lawsuit in late 2025 to challenge the agency’s new and unlawful mandatory detention policy depriving all immigrants who entered without inspection access to a bond hearing, regardless of how long they have lived in the United States. In March of this year, Judge Boulware determined that DHS’s mandatory detention policy violated federal law and vacated DHS’s unlawful policy, which opened the door for those impacted by the decision to receive a bond hearing. Since that time, DHS has engaged in serious violations of court orders, as outlined by the court, forcing attorneys to file habeas petitions at scale.

“Judge Boulware’s decision to release seven petitioners who are members of this class on personal recognizance is a reminder that government agencies do not get to break the law. This decision is the result of DHS’s lack of compliance with a valid court order and a broader lack of respect for our Constitution, the judiciary, and due process. As Judge Boulware stated, the Court ‘will not ratify the government’s lawless conduct.’

“As someone who has practiced law at a high level for quite a long time, I’ve never seen anything quite like this. Rarely do we see a government agency openly and brazenly ignoring federal court orders, but people should feel comfort knowing that there remain judges like Judge Boulware committed to the Constitution who refuse to serve as doormats for executive agencies to walk over and people and groups that will continue to resist illegal government actions.”