Federal appeals court compares Trump migrant detention policy to Japanese American internment

"Mass detention of marginalized individuals without due process harkens back to some of the darkest moments in our country's history," the court wrote.

"The courts have resoundingly rejected the administration's cruel policy and its blatant disrespect for the rule of law," said My Khanh Ngo, senior staff attorney with the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project. "We are thrilled for our clients and their families."

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the agency was disappointed with Thursday's decision but said it recently sought a Supreme Court review of a similar decision from the 6th Circuit.

"Opinions from the Board of Immigration Appeals and two other federal courts of appeals reflect the soundness of DHS' legal position," the spokesperson said. "This legal position was the nail in the coffin for Biden's catch and release policies. That is why the left and their activist proxies on the judiciary are resisting it so vigorously.

"President Trump and Secretary Mullin are now enforcing the law as it was actually written to keep America safe," the spokesperson added. "As our record in the U.S. Supreme Court demonstrates, the law is on our side."

Writing for the majority, 4th Circuit Judge Nicole Berner invoked the mass internment of Japanese Americans during World War II as a warning against sweeping executive detention authority without due process.

"The stain of these detentions on our nation - and the judiciary's abdication of its obligation to protect basic freedoms - continues to haunt us," Berner wrote.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House and ICE.