Top immigration court rules judges can deny bond to millions of immigrants

Immigration appellate board upholds Trump policy denying bond hearings to immigrants who entered without authorization, expanding mandatory detention nationwide. Ruling strips judges’ discretion and treats long-term residents the same as newly arriving immigrants subject to quick deportation. Attorneys say the policy could hold immigrants through the deportation process, which can last years. A Trump administration policy to deny bond hearings to immigrants who entered the country without authorization was upheld by an immigration appellate board Friday, expanding mandatory detention to thousands of people already behind bars and potentially millions more nationwide. Although the policy is being challenged in federal court, the ruling by the Board of Immigration Appeals is likely to send an immediate chill through immigration courts where judges for decades have released individuals on bond whom they did not deem a flight risk or danger. Those judges are now bound by the board’s decision. Immigration courts are not part of the judicial branch but fall under the Department of Justice. Advertisement Immigrant rights attorneys say holding immigrants throughout their cases — a process that can take years — is intended to break the spirit of many and force them to sign their own deportation orders. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks to reporters before touring "Camp 57," a facility to house immigration detainees at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, La., Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) World & Nation Judge blocks Noem’s ending of legal protections for 1.1 million Venezuelans and Haitians Sept. 5, 2025 “This is an effort to increase the number of people in detention significantly,” said Niels W. Frenzen, director of the USC Gould School of Law Immigration Clinic, who is part of a team of attorneys who have filed habeas petitions for dozens of immigrants picked up during the raids in recent months in Los Angeles. “Literally millions of people are now subject to being held without bond,” he said. One of those is Ana Franco Galdamez, a mother of two U.S. citizens who has been in the country for two decades. She was getting treatment for breast cancer when she was arrested in a June 19 raid in Los Angeles County, where nearly 1 million undocumented immigrants reside, according to estimates. Advertisement She was denied bond and missed treatment, but she was eventually released after a lawyer filed a habeas case. President Donald Trump speaks during an event about the relocation of U.S. Space Command headquarters from Colorado to Alabama in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) World & Nation Trump can’t use Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan gang members, court rules Sept. 3, 2025 “Detention conditions are horrific, and they’ve gotten even worse,” Frenzen said. “The goal of the administration is to make it difficult for people to fight their cases and to give up.” Federal judges have ruled in several cases that denying bond violated federal statutes and constitutionally protected due process. The group is now seeking to block the no-bond policy in a class-action lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Other lawsuits are also pending. Advertisement The Trump administration introduced the no-bond policy nationally in a memo in July — paving the way for the mandatory detention of immigrants. The move came after Congress authorized expanding immigration detention and enforcement amid a crackdown inside courtrooms and at immigration check-ins. ARLINGTON, TEXAS - AUGUST 26: Videos are displayed on screens as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) holds a major hiring event on August 26, 2025 in Arlington, Texas. The federal immigration agency is ramping up recruiting efforts nationwide. (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images) California ICE is hiring 10,000 agents. Some unexpected people want to join the Trump crackdown Aug. 29, 2025 Immigrants, most of whom had been following the rules to adjust, maintain or gain legal status, were arrested and detained. For months now, those inside the immigration courts system have been pressed to implement Trump administration policies. Judges have been fired, and the Pentagon has said it is identifying military lawyers and judges to temporarily sit on the bench. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin called the ruling a “big win for our ICE attorneys securing our ability to detain illegal aliens until they are deported.” The Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the immigration courts, did not answer specific questions from The Times — but pointed out that the ruling was a precedent. “It strips judicial discretion in many cases,” said Claire Trickler-McNulty, a former senior official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “It basically says, if you entered illegally, only ICE can decide if you get out of detention.” Camarillo, CA - July 10: Ana Banuelos, 43, waves a flag during the protests against the immigration raids at the Glass House on Laguna Road Thursday, July 10, 2025, in Camarillo, CA. Julie Leopo / For The Times California Latinos built a vibrant community on the sea in Oxnard. Trump raids are shattering it Aug. 29, 2025 The Board of Immigration Appeals decision stems from the case of a Venezuelan immigrant who crossed the border in November 2022 near El Paso and was later granted temporary protected status. That status expired April 2 after the Trump administration terminated the program, a decision that is also tied up in litigation. The board determined that immigration judges had no authority to issue bonds because immigrants “who are present in the United States without admission ... must be detained for the duration of their removal proceedings.” In other words, the board’s decision treats people who have been in the U.S. for years the same as newly arriving immigrants at the border, who can be quickly deported without bond. “We’ve had clients that are pregnant, we’ve had clients that are breastfeeding. We’ve had clients who have never been arrested, let alone commit, convicted of any crime ever, who’ve never missed an ICE check-in — they’re all being told, ‘You’re subject to mandatory detention because of this new interpretation by the Trump administration,’ ” said Jordan Wells, an attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. “This now solidifies that as the law of the land, unless and until [the] federal circuit court rules otherwise.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.