A guide, with live counts from the courts' own feeds
Filing a habeas corpus petition for someone held in immigration detention
When a person is held in immigration detention and no immigration judge can or will release them, the remaining route is a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. district court for the place where they are held. The petition asks a federal judge to decide whether the detention is lawful, and to order release or a bond hearing if it is not. These are among the most common civil filings in the federal courts right now, brought by immigration lawyers, by family members, and by detained people on their own.
2,549 new habeas petitions and other suits naming immigration detention officials filed in federal court between September 21, 2026 and October 21, 2026, across 58 districts, counted from the district courts' own filing feeds.
Sued most often this month in this kind of case: U.S. Department of Homeland Security (60), MULLIN, Secretary of U.S. Department of Homeland Security (56), Department of Homeland Security (41), United States Department of Homeland Security (21), Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (10). Each company page lists every one of its cases, and every case can be checked free.
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How the case runs
Where and against whom to file
The statute is 28 U.S.C. § 2241, which reaches anyone held in custody in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States. The petition is normally filed in the district where the person is confined, and names the person’s immediate custodian, the warden of the facility or the responsible field office director (Rumsfeld v. Padilla, 542 U.S. 426 (2004)); petitions usually also name the heads of the agency and the department. Someone else may file it on the detained person’s behalf (28 U.S.C. § 2242). The filing fee is $5 (28 U.S.C. § 1914(a)).
The court orders the government to answer, fast
Unless the petition plainly fails on its face, the court must order the respondent to show cause why the writ should not be granted, and the return is due within three days unless the court allows more time, up to twenty days (28 U.S.C. § 2243). Many courts set their own schedule in the order to show cause, and many also order that the person not be moved out of the district while the case is pending.
What the petition argues
The claim depends on the person’s stage. Someone still in removal proceedings is held under 8 U.S.C. § 1226, and a petition can ask the court to order a bond hearing or find the detention has become unreasonably long. Someone with a final removal order is held under 8 U.S.C. § 1231(a)(6), and detention beyond six months is presumptively unreasonable where removal is not reasonably foreseeable (Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678 (2001)). The Supreme Court has held these statutes do not themselves require periodic bond hearings, leaving the constitutional claims to be decided case by case (Jennings v. Rodriguez, 583 U.S. 281 (2018)).
Decision and what follows
The court decides on the papers or after a hearing (28 U.S.C. § 2243). Relief is usually release, a bond hearing before an immigration judge within a set number of days, or an order forbidding transfer. Either side may appeal to the court of appeals. Many cases end earlier, when the government releases the person or the immigration judge grants bond and the petition is dismissed as moot.
Know the day your docket moves
In the last 30 days 2,549 new habeas petitions and other suits naming immigration detention officials filed in federal court reached the courts’ feeds across 58 districts, the newest on October 21, 2026. Every one of them is now a docket that moves without warning, and yours is no different.
In a habeas case the clock runs in days, not months: the order to show cause, the government’s return, a transfer notice and the decision itself can all land in the same week, and the person the case is about is in custody while they do. CaseMagic Watch reads the docket every day and emails you when a new entry lands, so a filing that changes what you should do next reaches you the day it is entered.
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Where they were filed
A case is counted once, on the date its opening filing was made, when the defendant the court typed into the caption is one this kind of case is brought against. Districts that publish no filing feed are not counted. No names are listed here on purpose.
Each district's wire is a free Atom feed of every new civil case filed there, released 48 hours after filing, for a feed reader or a Slack channel. Every district on the wire.
Questions people ask before they start
Can a family member file the petition?
Yes. A habeas petition may be signed and verified by the person in custody or by someone acting on their behalf (28 U.S.C. § 2242). Courts refer to that person as a next friend.
Does filing stop a removal or a transfer?
Not by itself. A court can order that the person not be removed or moved while it decides the petition, and many courts do so in the order to show cause, but that order has to be asked for.
How quickly does the government have to respond?
Within three days of the order to show cause unless the court allows more time, and never more than twenty days (28 U.S.C. § 2243). In practice the court’s own order sets the date, and it is often a week or two.
Can the public read the filings?
Habeas petitions are civil cases on the public docket. Some filings are sealed or redacted, but the docket entries themselves appear, which is what CaseMagic reads.
How do I get told the day something is filed in my case?
Check the case by number above, free. If its court is one CaseMagic monitors, the result offers Watch for that case: the docket is re-read on a schedule and you are emailed the day a new entry appears, with its description and the time the docket was last read. It needs no PACER login. Watch is $99/month after a 7-day free trial, $0 today, cancel any time. The counts on this page cover habeas petitions and other suits naming immigration detention officials filed in federal court; the alert covers only your own docket.
CaseMagic is an independent service, not a law firm, and nothing on this page is legal advice. The rules cited are the ones in force as this page was written; check your court's local rules and any order in your own case.
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