Under a new Trump administration policy, millions of migrants who entered the U.S. illegally will remain in detention throughout their deportation proceedings, which can stretch for months or even years.
In a July 8 memo, Acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons instructed agents that migrants will no longer qualify for bond hearings and must be held “for the duration of their removal proceedings.”
Lyons explained that DHS and the Justice Department “revisited their legal position on detention and release authorities” and concluded that migrants “may not be released from ICE custody.”
First disclosed by The Washington Post, the policy overturns decades-old migrant detention norms and is set to intensify the Trump administration’s deportation campaign. Tom Jawetz, a former Biden homeland security official, described it as “a radical departure that could explode the detention population.”
Meanwhile, Lyons urged ICE attorneys “to make alternative arguments in support of continued detention,” as immigration advocates report that bond hearings are already being denied in over a dozen immigration courts nationwide.
“This is their way of putting in place nationwide a method of detaining even more people,” said Greg Chen, the senior director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “It’s requiring the detention of far more people without any real review of their individual circumstances.”
