A federal appeals court has blocked a Trump administration immigration policy that would have allowed authorities to detain far more migrants without bond hearings, including people who had been living in the US for years.

In a ruling issued Wednesday, the Miami-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the administration's attempt to significantly expand mandatory detention powers under federal immigration law. Judges warned the policy could have led to the large-scale detention of migrants with jobs, families and long-established lives in the country.

The case centred on a policy change introduced last year that expanded who could be held in immigration detention without the possibility of bond, deepening a wider legal battle over the scope of federal immigration powers.

Under previous interpretations, mandatory detention rules mainly applied to migrants stopped near the border shortly after entering the US. People already living inside the country were generally allowed to request bond hearings before an immigration judge.

The administration argued those protections should not apply to many undocumented migrants already living in the US. Under its interpretation, they could still be treated as 'applicants for admission', placing them under stricter detention rules contained in Section 235 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

BREAKING: The 11th circuit becomes the latest to reject ICE’s mass detention policy. The 2-1 ruling deepens the split among federal circuits and continues likely path the SCOTUS.https://t.co/zZnuyUB9ojpic.twitter.com/EvQsUVb4zR

11th Circuit: Congress has not authorized the mass detention of unadmitted aliens who are simply present in the country under the INA.ROSENBAUM and MARCUS, majority. LAGOA dissents.https://t.co/AwxhI4rYCl

🚨 A divided 11th Circuit panel rejected the Trump administration’s position that undocumented immigrants arrested in the U.S. must be detained without bond while fighting removal proceedings.pic.twitter.com/FtvS2q4N1s

Writing for the majority, Judge Stanley Marcus said Congress never gave the executive branch 'unfettered authority' to detain 'every unadmitted alien' without the possibility of release.

Marcus also wrote that the administration's interpretation did not find 'steady footing' in the text, structure or history of the law. The majority opinion warned the policy could affect millions of migrants, including people with no criminal record who had spent years building lives in the US.

Source: International Business Times UK