A divided US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled against a Trump immigration policy, finding that most migrants should be released on bond while awaiting deportation proceedings.
The three-judge panel ruling Wednesday adds to a circuit split across the country fueled by hundreds of cases in which migrants are contesting mandatory detention while they await rulings deciding whether they can stay in the country.
The legal question boiled down to an interpretation of where unauthorized migrants fit into definitions laid out in federal immigration statutes and regulations. If they’re considered “applicants for admission” under the law that doesn’t ...