2026-11-10 / CNN
华盛顿州西雅图市及周边地区的联邦检察官正放弃在被拘留移民案件中的诉讼，原因是他们没有足够的资源应对激增的案件数量。
已有数千名被拘留者在联邦法院对自身拘留状态提出质疑，要求司法部检察官必须对所有案件的申请作出正式回应，法官才会作出裁决。即便法官裁定被拘留者应获释，司法部也经常需要继续在法院跟进。尽管全国范围内此类申请数量庞大，华盛顿西部地区法院却已实际上退出了相关案件的庭审辩论。
美国检察官办公室近日表示，不断增加的案件量导致了“冗长的诉讼程序”，“消耗了大量联邦检察官（AUSA）的时间”。
“遗憾的是，美国检察官办公室目前没有足够资源，无法继续在每周提交的数十份[人身保护令申请]中每一起都指派联邦检察官出庭，”西雅图代理联邦检察官查尔斯·弗洛伊德于10月26日向首席法官大卫·埃斯图迪洛致信称。
这一政策转变意味着特朗普政府承认，其强硬的移民拘留政策仍在过度耗费法院系统及司法部自身的资源。此前，美国其他各州的检察官也曾对所面临的移民拘留案件数量表达过不满。
西雅图和塔科马地区的这一转变，也将更多控制权交到了法院手中，由法院推动被拘留者获释。弗洛伊德的信甚至鼓励法院“直接”向华盛顿州塔科马的移民及海关执法局（ICE）拘留设施发送邮件，告知被拘留的移民获释相关事宜。
西雅图联邦检察官办公室和华盛顿特区司法部的发言人周二未就置评请求作出回应。
在唐纳德·特朗普总统第二任期的早些时候，政府调整了政策，使得被拘留的移民无法立即通过移民系统获得获释渠道。相反，他们必须提起诉讼，即所谓的人身保护令申请，要求联邦法官批准其从拘留状态中获释。这一规定甚至适用于被ICE拘留的非暴力移民。全国各地联邦法院的人身保护令案件数量因此激增。
根据ProPublica收集的数据，自2025年1月以来，联邦地区法院已受理近10万起此类案件，涉及数十万处于拘留状态、等待进一步移民程序的无证移民。
截至本月月初，华盛顿西部地区法院已受理了约2000起此类案件。
“大量提交的申请通常是复制其他申请的内容，严重影响了政府应对特定申请的能力——这些申请需要美国检察官办公室投入可观的律师时间进行调查和分析，”西雅图联邦检察官写道，“这也对政府应对该地区针对政府提起的其他民事诉讼的能力产生了负面影响。”
这封信于上周末由另一名法官公开。
“政府完全掌握着与申请人拘留相关的全部事实，却未提供任何事实或法律依据来反驳其申请，”西雅图联邦地区法官金伯利·埃文斯周六在一起司法部从未作出回应的人身保护令案件中写道，“政府未能对申请提出异议，等于放弃了本可提出的抗辩理由。”
许多提起人身保护令案件的被拘留者已获法官释放在案。明尼苏达州等一些地区因人身保护令案件过于繁重，法官已对司法部及特朗普政府无力遵守法院命令的做法提出强烈批评。
移民权利官员也对特朗普政府引发人身保护令案件浪潮的做法提出严厉批评。
“由于特朗普政府的非法拘留政策，过去两年联邦地区法院已收到数千份人身保护令申请，”全国移民司法中心政策主任马克·弗洛伊德周二表示，“这只是最新迹象，表明美国检察官的资源正从社区依赖的重要事务中被抽调，全部用于为ICE的非法拘留行为辩护。”
关于被拘留移民获得法律援助的经济可行性问题，今年也将由最高法院审理。
Justice Department prosecutors in Washington can’t keep up with all the cases of immigrants suing for their release
2026-11-10 / CNN
Federal prosecutors in Seattle and surrounding areas of Washington state are forfeiting court fights over detained immigrants because they don’t have the resources to keep up with the flood of cases.
Thousands of detainees have challenged their detention in federal court, requiring Justice Department prosecutors to formally respond to all the filings in the cases before a judge can rule. The Justice Department also frequently has to follow-up in court even after the judge rules for the detainee to be released. While the filings are voluminous across the country, the Western District of Washington is effectively removing itself from arguing the cases in court.
The mounting case load has led to “protracted litigation” that “consumes substantial AUSA time,” the US attorney’s office said recently.
“ The USAO unfortunately does not have the available resources, at this juncture, to continue entering AUSA appearances in every one of the dozens of [habeas petitions] filed each week,” Seattle’s acting US Attorney Charles Floyd wrote to Chief Judge David Estudillo on October 26.
The change in policy captures an admission by the Trump administration that its hard-line immigration detention policies are still overwhelming the court system, and the Justice Department itself. Prosecutors in other states across the country have previously expressed their frustration with the volume of immigration detention cases they’re facing.
The shift in Seattle and Tacoma also puts more control in the court’s hands to prompt the release of detainees. Floyd’s letter even encourages the court to “directly” email an ICE detention facility in Tacoma, Washington, when an immigrant housed there is to be released.
Spokespeople for the US Attorney’s Office in Seattle and the Justice Department in Washington, DC, didn’t respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
Earlier in President Donald Trump’s second term, the administration changed its policy so that immigrant detainees didn’t have immediate resources to be released through the immigration system. Instead, they would have to file court cases, called habeas corpus petitions, asking for federal judges to approve their releases from detention. This applied to even non-violent immigrants who were detained by ICE. The number of habeas cases skyrocketed in federal courts across the country.
Nearly 100,000 of these cases have been filed in federal district courts since January 2025 — representing hundreds of thousands of undocumented people who are in detention awaiting further immigration proceedings, according to data collected by ProPublica.
The Western District of Washington has had about 2,000 of those cases as of earlier this month, according to ProPublica.
“ The large volumes of petitions that are being filed, often copying from other petitions, has severely impacted the government’s ability to respond to specific petitions that require appreciable attorney time from the USAO to investigate and analyze,” the US Attorney in Seattle wrote. “It has also negatively impacted the government’s ability to respond to other civil litigation filed against the government in the District.”
The letter was made public by a different judge this weekend.
“ The Government has full access to the relevant facts concerning Petitioner’s detention, yet it has offered no factual or legal basis to rebut his petition,” federal District Judge Kymberly Evanson in Seattle wrote on Saturday in one of the habeas cases where the Justice Department never responded. “The Government’s failure to oppose the petition constitutes forfeiture of the arguments it could have made.”
Judges have released many detained immigrants who file habeas cases. Some districts, like Minnesota, have been so bogged down by the habeas cases, the judges became highly critical of the Justice Department and the Trump administration’s inability to keep up with court orders.
Immigrant rights officials have also been highly critical of how the Trump administration prompted the onslaught of habeas cases.
“ Because of the Trump administration’s unlawful detention policies, the federal district courts have been inundated with thousands of habeas petitions over the last two years,” Mark Fleming, the director of policy at the National Immigrant Justice Center, said on Tuesday. “This is just the latest indication that U.S. attorney resources are being distracted from important matters that communities rely on, all to defend unlawful ICE detentions.”
Questions about the economic accessibility of legal counsel for immigrant detainees is also before the Supreme Court this year.
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