A federal appeals court has thrown a major wrench into the Trump administration's immigration detention strategy. In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York rejected Immigration and Customs Enforcement's effort to hold most people facing deportation without any chance at bond—even longtime residents with no criminal history, Politico reports. Writing for the court, Judge Joseph Bianco, a Trump appointee, said the government's reading of immigration law was flawed and warned it would create "the broadest mass detention-without-bond mandate in our Nation's history for millions of noncitizens." Bianco, joined by judges appointed by Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, said Congress did not clearly authorize such a sweeping shift. "If Congress meant to achieve such a radical break from the past, it would not have done so in such an indirect and ambiguous way," he wrote. Immigrants have been denied bond since a policy change last July, based on the administration's interpretation of a 1996 law, the AP reports. Since the change, more than 30,000 lawsuits from detained immigrants have strained the federal court system. The ruling is the first from an appeals court to strike down this interpretation, despite similar findings by numerous trial judges—370 of them, or around 90% of those who have dealt with the cases, according to Bianco. It also deepens a split: the Louisiana-based 5th and the Missouri-based 8th Circuits have backed the Trump administration's position. That divide among federal appeals courts makes it more likely the Supreme Court will be asked to step in. In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said "judicial activists have been repeatedly overruled by the Supreme Court" on mandatory detention issues. "ICE has the law and the facts on its side and will be vindicated by higher courts." Amy Belsher, director of Immigrants' Rights Litigation at the New York Civil Liberties Union said the ruling "rightly affirms" that the policy is "unlawful and cannot stand," the AP reports. "The government cannot mandatorily detain millions of noncitizens, many of whom have lived here for decades, without an opportunity to seek release," she said. "It defies the Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and basic human decency." Read These Next Why so many zombie homes? The dreaded exit tax. City losing its last Black and Decker plant, thanks to tape measures. Putin suggests war with Ukraine is 'coming to an end.' A young woman's DIY detox didn't end well.