The federal appeals court serving New England ruled that thousands of detained immigrants have a right to bond hearings.

On Friday, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision upheld a lower court’s decision in Massachusetts, declaring that the federal government was misinterpreting immigration law and denying bond hearings to immigrant detainees, despite almost three decades of precedent.

The 1st Circuit is the seventh appeals court to reach this conclusion in the last year. The decisions came after federal officials began applying a different provision of national immigration law to immigrants who have been living in the country after entering “without inspection,” meaning they didn’t arrive with a visa or meet with U.S. border officials.

That includes immigrants who have been in the United States for years. The lead plaintiff in the case, José Arnulfo Guerrero Orellana, has been living in the country since 2013.

Circuit Judge Lara Montecalvo wrote in a majority opinion that, for almost 30 years, immigration officials would have considered immigrants like Guerrero Orellana under a provision of the law that allows detainees to request bond, as long as they’re not found to be dangerous to the community or a flight risk. Circuit Judge Sandra Lynch also ruled with the majority.

Under the other part of the law, the federal government said it was allowed to hold people without offering them an opportunity to advocate for their release before an immigration judge.

Montecalvo wrote that the government has been applying the wrong part of the law.

“For those still harboring doubts, we add this thought: thirty years of agency practice,” Montecalvo wrote. “Over three decades, five administrations implemented the disputed statutes just as we conclude today that their texts require.”

Circuit Judge Joshua Dunlap, of Maine, defended the government’s interpretation of immigration laws for detention in a dissenting opinion. He wrote that the issue, which has been addressed by multiple federal district and appeals courts, “will doubtless be resolved by the
Supreme Court.”

Two other federal appeals courts have sided with the federal government.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Maine was one of several advocacy organizations involved in the New England case. In a statement Friday, the organization’s legal director Carol Garvan said the appeals decision vindicates “the rights of immigrants unlawfully detained in Maine and throughout New England.”

“The government’s cruel mandatory detention policy stripped people of the chance to seek their freedom while indefinitely separating them from their loved ones, communities, and jobs,” Garvan said. “The policy also upended decades of standard civil immigration procedures, violating the clear language of federal law. The court’s order is clear: no administration is above the law. The government cannot arrest and detain people indefinitely without providing them with a hearing in front of a judge.”