A Nevada judge last week accused the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of disregarding a binding court order and engaging in "governmental lawlessness" because the agency has continued the Trump administration's "mandatory detention" policy the judge had previously ruled unlawful.

In late March, federal judge Richard Boulware II ruled that ICE cannot lock up everyone facing deportation. It was a decision that was estimated to affect hundreds of people, allowing upward of 60 people per week to seek release in Nevada after an immigration arrest. 

Boulware said that ICE had repeatedly failed to comply with the decision he made in March in the case Jacobo-Ramirez v. Noem. He made the accusation in a decision on a lawsuit filed on behalf of seven individuals detained in Nevada who said they were arrested without a proper warrant or given any determination if they would be held in custody or released on immigration bond.  

Since it went into effect in July 2025, more than a hundred judges nationwide have ruled against the administration's mandatory detention policy. The Trump administration has touted it as key to its mass deportation agenda. The policy, which applies to most immigrants who crossed the border illegally, bars them from asking an immigration judge to consider releasing them on bond.

"The government is rebelling against the basic principle underlying our constitutional order that 'an order issued by a court … must be obeyed by the parties until it is reversed,'" Boulware wrote in his decision. He noted that the federal government has not appealed his March ruling, which held that the challenged detention policy violated federal law.

The suit also lists Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam and the Nevada Southern Detention Center, who are holding the detainees, as defendants. Balaam and the Nevada Southern Detention Center claimed that they had "no independent authority" to release plaintiffs, according to the suit. 

Balaam, in a response to the court, said that he is "solely the custodian" of those detained "per a detention services agreement with ICE."

Neither Washoe County's Sheriff's Office nor the Nevada Southern Detention Center returned a request for comment. ICE did not respond to a question asking whether they intend to follow the court's ruling and whether the plaintiffs had been released.

None of the plaintiffs were listed as booked at the Washoe County Detention Facility as of Tuesday afternoon, according to a county database.

The ruling marks a significant development in ongoing litigation over immigration detention policies in Nevada. The ruling in March signaled a massive success for immigration advocates in Nevada, marking the first time a class-action lawsuit in the state has overturned a Department of Homeland Security policy. Some advocates hoped that the ruling would slow the detention of people in Nevada, which has skyrocketed in the last year. 

Athar Hassebullah, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, which is defending the plaintiffs, said that he "never seen anything quite like this."

"Rarely do we see a government agency openly and brazenly ignoring federal court orders," Hassebullah said.  

In his latest order, Boulware described the case as part of a broader pattern of noncompliance by federal immigration officials in Nevada, especially following the March ruling. He cited a lawsuit from April that claimed ICE transferred a detainee out of the district in violation of court order and pointed to another case from May that said that the government failed to provide a lawful basis for an immigrant's detention.

In lieu of having defendants go through bond hearings, Boulware last week ordered that the seven plaintiffs be released from custody on Monday and that they cannot be detained again until their removal proceedings are heard in immigration court. Boulware said that the ongoing detention of certain immigrants could be dangerous and risks them missing scheduled court hearings. 

"Ordering a bond hearing here would effectively allow the Government to transform an unlawful detention into a lawful one," Boulware wrote.