Margarito Castanon Nava v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security

About the case

Castanon Nava is nationally important because it brings the Seventh Circuit into the same mandatory-detention fight already tracked in the Fifth, Eighth, and Second Circuits. The judgment is narrower than Cunha: Judge Lee rejected the government's section 1225(b)(2) theory for interior arrestees, Judge Pryor concurred in the judgment on waiver and consent-decree grounds without adopting the merits analysis, and Judge Kirsch dissented. Even with that fractured posture, the case is a major appellate constraint on the administration's no-bond detention program in the Chicago ICE field office and a new signal that Supreme Court review of the detention split is becoming more likely.

Relief

The class sought enforcement and extension of the Castanon Nava consent decree, release or alternatives to detention for class members arrested in violation of section 1357(a)(2), and rejection of DHS's attempt to recast those arrestees as mandatory-detention cases under section 1225(b)(2).

What's next

The next major milestones are any rehearing or Supreme Court filing and whether the fractured Seventh Circuit posture affects the broader Fifth-Eighth-Second Circuit split over mandatory detention for long-time interior arrestees.