Sheridan Gorman was 18 years old, walking with friends near Lake Michigan, hoping to see the northern lights.
A Venezuelan illegal alien Biden caught and released in 2023 – then released again after a Chicago shoplifting arrest – shot her in the back and killed her.
But what just happened in a federal courthouse will make sure that story doesn't get repeated in six more states.
The Eighth Circuit Slammed the Door
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that illegal aliens detained by ICE cannot demand bond hearings to walk free while their removal cases proceed.
Two-to-one decision.
George W. Bush-appointed Judge Bobby Shepherd wrote the majority opinion, reversing a Minnesota district court that had ordered a bond hearing for Joaquin Herrera Avila – a Mexican national caught during a Minneapolis traffic stop who had entered illegally twice, in 2006 and again in 2016, and never once applied for legal status.
The district court decided that because Avila had lived here for years, he wasn't technically "seeking admission" anymore – so he deserved a bond hearing and a shot at walking out the door.
The Eighth Circuit said that was wrong.
Under federal law, anyone who entered without inspection and never obtained legal status is still an "applicant for admission" – regardless of how long they've been here.
"MASSIVE COURT VICTORY against activist judges and for President Trump's law and order agenda," Attorney General Pam Bondi declared after the ruling.
https://twitter.com/AGPamBondi/status/2036835784829829624?s=20
"The law is very clear, but Democrats and activist judges haven't wanted to enforce it. This administration will. Imagine how many illegal alien crimes could have been averted if the left had simply followed the law?"
This Is Now the Law in Six States
The Eighth Circuit covers Minnesota, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
That matters enormously.
Pro-migration judges and lawyers have used bond hearings to release more than 10,000 illegal aliens back onto American streets since Trump's deportation campaign began.
Minnesota was the epicenter of that tactic – one analysis found that in 362 cases nationwide, judges rejected the Trump administration's detention authority in all but 12.
That ends now in six states.
The Eighth Circuit's ruling aligns with the Fifth Circuit's February decision in Buenrostro-Mendez v. Bondi, which reached the same conclusion covering Texas and four other Southern states.
Two circuits.
Eleven states.
The legal wall around ICE's detention authority just got twice as thick.
What This Ruling Actually Does
Here is what bond hearings accomplish in practice – and why Democrats fight so hard to preserve them.
https://twitter.com/Arkadalo/status/2036923651564396892?s=20
When a judge orders a bond hearing, a detained illegal alien gets a shot at release while their removal case drags on for months or years.
They keep working.
They disappear into sanctuary cities.
They decline self-deportation.
Jose Medina-Medina had been caught at the border in 2023. Biden released him. Chicago police caught him shoplifting. Sanctuary Chicago released him again. And then he murdered an 18-year-old girl walking to see the night sky.
Every bond hearing is a door that Democrat politicians – and the judges they've spent decades cultivating – want left open.
Eleven Illinois Democrats voted against the Laken Riley Act that would have put Medina-Medina in ICE custody after that shoplifting arrest.
Not one will return a phone call about it now.
The SCOTUS Battle Is Coming
Pro-migration groups are already calling the ruling "awful" and promising en banc appeals.
The Seventh Circuit – covering Illinois and Indiana – has already signaled skepticism of mandatory detention, setting up a direct circuit split that makes Supreme Court review almost inevitable.
https://twitter.com/the_hunter1100/status/2037168244981993611?s=20
But Trump's DOJ has now won back-to-back appellate victories on the core question: can ICE hold illegal aliens without a bond hearing during removal proceedings?
Two circuits say yes.
The legal rationale is airtight. Congress never created a carve-out protecting illegal aliens who evaded detection long enough to settle into Minneapolis or Houston.
The 1996 law said illegal entrants are applicants for admission.
That is exactly what the Eighth Circuit enforced.
Sheridan Gorman's parents can tell you what happens when judges decide otherwise.
So can Laken Riley's family.
Sources:
- Charles Creitz, "Trump scores 'massive court victory' with appellate ruling on ICE detention," Fox News, March 25, 2026.
- Neil Munro, "Trump Wins as Judges Block Release of Migrants," Breitbart, March 25, 2026.
- "Illinois Democrats silent on Laken Riley Act votes after student's killing," Fox News, March 24, 2026.
- "Chicago Killing Is 'Laken Riley 2.0'," Center for Immigration Studies, March 25, 2026.
