The Trump administration has implemented a sweeping policy change that will force millions of migrants who entered the United States illegally to remain detained throughout their deportation proceedings, eliminating the decades-old practice of bond hearings.
Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd M. Lyons announced the policy shift in a July 8 memo to agents, stating that migrants will no longer be eligible for bond hearings and must be detained “for the duration of their removal proceedings.”
The memo explained that the Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department “revisited its legal position on detention and release authorities” and concluded that migrants “may not be released from ICE custody.”
This policy reversal marks a significant departure from legal standards that have governed migrant detention for decades and represents a key component of the Trump administration’s expanded deportation efforts.
Former Biden administration homeland security official Tom Jawetz described the change as “a radical departure that could explode the detention population.”
Under previous procedures, individuals facing deportation could request bond hearings before immigration judges.
When judges granted bond, migrants could be released into communities while their deportation cases proceeded through the court system.
ICE’s annual report revealed that as of last year, the majority of the 7.6 million migrants on the agency’s docket had been released from detention.
The new guidance requires these migrants to remain in detention centers, where ICE currently holds approximately 56,000 migrants daily.
Detention capacity is expected to nearly double under the recently-passed Big Beautiful Bill, which provides $45 billion over four years to expand facilities for civil deportation proceedings.
The policy applies to any migrant who illegally crossed the southern border over recent decades, including those who “came in record numbers” during the Biden administration.
In rare circumstances, migrants may still receive parole, but immigration officers rather than judges must make these decisions, according to the memo.
The Trump administration justifies the policy change by citing immigration law provisions stating that migrants “shall be detained” after arrest, which the memo interprets as a “prohibition on release.” However, this provision has traditionally been understood to apply only to recent border crossers.
Lyons acknowledged in the memo that the policy shift is “likely to be litigated,” per Daily Mail reporting.
Lyons encouraged ICE prosecutors to “make alternative arguments in support of continued detention” as immigration attorneys report migrants being denied bond hearings in more than a dozen immigration courts nationwide.
These migrants now face deportation to a “third country” with as little as “six hours notice” if they have had an opportunity to consult with an attorney.
Greg Chen, senior director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the policy represents “their way of putting in place nationwide a method of detaining even more people.”
Chen argued that the new guidance requires “the detention of far more people without any real review of their individual circumstances.”
Immigration rights groups contend the policy violates due process rights, with one immigration lawyer and former ICE chief counsel noting that migrants “could be held indefinitely until they’re deported.”
Legal experts have compared the new policy to actions taken by immigration judges in Tacoma, Washington, who denied hearings to anyone who crossed the border illegally.
The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project filed a lawsuit in March challenging these judges’ actions, arguing that refusing bond hearings violated migrants’ rights.
The case involved Ramon Rodriguez Vazquez, who has lived in Washington state since 2009 and works as a farmer, arguing that his entire family are U.S. citizens and he owns the home where ICE arrested him in February.
A federal judge in Washington state found that Rodriguez Vazquez had “no criminal history in the United States or anywhere else in the world” and ordered immigration officers to provide him a proper bond hearing.
Despite the judge’s order, Rodriguez Vazquez was denied bond and subsequently deported to Mexico.
An attorney representing Rodriguez Vazquez called the Trump administration’s policy “flagrantly unlawful” and argued it is “looking to supercharge detention beyond what it already is.”
Supporters of the policy change argue it may discourage migrants from filing frivolous claims hoping for release while cases proceed through backlogged immigration courts.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, said “detention is absolutely the best way to approach this, if you can do it. It costs a lot of money, obviously.”
Krikorian explained that detention ensures authorities can “remove the person if there’s a negative finding, if he’s in detention.”
Migrants convicted of murder or other serious crimes were already subject to mandatory detention without bond, and this year, the Republican-led Congress added theft-related crimes to the list of non-bond-eligible offenses.
Government officials have reopened family detention centers that the Biden administration closed due to security concerns and reinforced other facilities including the “controversial ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detention center” in the Florida Everglades.
“Democrat lawmakers who were granted access to tour” the hastily-constructed facility have criticized the conditions migrants will face there.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) compared the facility to an internment camp, saying “there are really disturbing, vile conditions” and demanding the “place be shut the hell down.”
The post Trump Admin Eliminates Bond Hearings for Illegal Border Crossers in Massive Expansion ‘That Could Explode the Detention Population’: Report appeared first on Resist the Mainstream.
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Author: Jordyn M.
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