More than 400 federal judges have ruled against Trump's immigration policies 4,421 times since October

Hundreds of judges around the country have ruled more than 4,400 times since October that President Donald Trump’s administration is detaining immigrants unlawfully, a Reuters review of court records found.

The decisions amount to a sweeping legal rebuke of Trump’s immigration crackdown. Yet the administration has continued jailing people indefinitely even after courts ruled the policy was illegal.

"It is appalling that the Government insists that this Court should redefine or completely disregard the current law as it is clearly written," U.S. District Judge Thomas Johnston of West Virginia, an appointee of President George W. Bush, wrote last week, ordering the release of a Venezuelan detainee in the state.

Most of the rulings center on the Trump administration’s departure from a nearly three-decade-old interpretation of federal law that immigrants already living in the United States could be released on bond while they pursue their cases in immigration court.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the administration is "working to lawfully deliver on President Trump’s mandate to enforce federal immigration law."

Under Trump, the number of people in ICE detention reached about 68,000 this month, up about 75% from when Trump took office last year.

A conservative appeals court in New Orleans last week gave the Trump administration a victory in its drive to lock up more immigrants. Just because prior administrations did not fully utilize the law to detain people “does not mean they lacked the authority to do more,” U.S. Circuit Judge Edith Jones wrote in a decision reversing rulings that led to the release of two Mexican men. Both remain free, their lawyer said.

Other appeals courts are set to take up the issue in the coming weeks.

Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, said the increase in lawsuits came as "no surprise" - "especially after many activist judges have attempted to thwart President Trump from fulfilling the American people's mandate for mass deportations."

The department did not respond to more specific questions about the cases and data findings in this story.

With few other legal paths to freedom, immigrant detainees have filed more than 20,200 federal lawsuits demanding their release since Trump took office, a Reuters review of court dockets found, underscoring the sweeping impact of Trump's policy change.

In at least 4,421 cases, more than 400 federal judges ruled since the beginning of October that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is holding people illegally as it carries out its mass-deportation campaign, Reuters found.

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