CHICAGO — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on May 5 upheld the extension of the Castañon Nava Consent Decree, reaffirming a federal court order aimed at holding immigration authorities accountable for unlawful warrantless arrests and requiring relief for individuals improperly detained by Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
The decision maintained the validity of U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Cummings’ October 2025 ruling, which extended the consent decree and ordered the release of individuals who had been unlawfully arrested without warrants by Border Patrol and ICE officers.
The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Organized Communities Against Deportations and plaintiffs who alleged they were victimized by the Trump administration through racial profiling and warrantless arrests without probable cause collaborated with the Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU Inc., also known as the ACLU of Illinois, and the National Immigrant Justice Center, which filed the class action lawsuit in 2022 that has kept the Castañon Nava Consent Decree in effect since then.
“This win belongs to our clients and the communities who have bravely reported ICE and Customs and Border Protection’s illegal warrantless arrests, including during Operation Midway Blitz. It affirms that the federal government must follow the Constitution and federal law during immigration enforcement, and that courts can hold the government accountable when they do not,” ACLU of Illinois Deputy Legal Director Michelle García said. “This ruling allows us to continue to ask for relief for individuals who should never have been detained and arrested in the first place. We will continue to advocate on behalf of every client for whom we can seek release.”
The Seventh Circuit’s decision included findings that the Department of Homeland Security committed “systemic violations of the consent decree,” which the court said justified extending the agreement. Those violations included a June 2025 incident in which a senior DHS official allegedly instructed officers to defy the district court’s ruling and stop complying with the decree. The appeals court concluded that the extension was “reasonable and narrowly tailored to address Defendants’ noncompliance.”
“This victory shows what can happen when lawyers and community members work together to document Homeland Security abuses and pursue relief for those who are harmed and accountability for those who create the harm,” Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights Senior Policy Counsel Fred Tsao said. “We hope that this ruling will enable even more people who have been wrongly arrested by immigration agents to win release and return to their families and communities.”
The appeals court also addressed a DHS argument advanced last year claiming that individuals who entered the United States without inspection were subject to mandatory detention. One judge wrote that there were significant problems with that argument, citing a recent Seventh Circuit decision that similarly rejected the position.
Another judge said it was unnecessary to address the merits of the argument because both parties were bound “by their shared understanding of mandatory detention at the time the decree was signed.” Despite differing reasoning among the judges, the majority rejected DHS’s claim that it was entitled to mandatory detention authority in the circumstances at issue.
“Today’s ruling essentially keeps us on the path we have been on since the appeals court allowed key parts of the district court’s ruling to stand last November. Since then, we have worked with community partners and families of hundreds of people who have been arrested without warrants and detained by immigration, painstakingly reviewing individual arrest reports to identify violations of the consent decree, negotiating with the government to secure relief for people who were unlawfully arrested, and returning to the district court when the administration refused to budge,” said Keren Zwick, director of litigation at the National Immigrant Justice Center.
“Unfortunately, due to the government’s intransigence, many more people who likely were arrested in violation of the decree have been swiftly deported without due process, or have given up and chosen to leave the United States to escape prolonged detention in inhumane conditions,” Zwick added. “We intend to continue reviewing documents and conferring with the government with the goal of giving as many people as possible the opportunity to return to their homes and families in the United States.”
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