Immigration agency flexes authority to sharply expand detention without bond hearing

Source: Associated Press

Immigration agency flexes authority to sharply expand detention without bond hearing

By ELLIOT SPAGAT
Updated 7:07 PM EDT, July 15, 2025

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has moved to detain far more people than before by tapping a legal authority to jail anyone who entered the country illegally without allowing them a bond hearing.

Todd Lyons, ICE’s acting director, wrote employees on July 8 that the agency was revisiting its “extraordinarily broad and equally complex” authority to detain people and that, effective immediately, people would be ineligible for a bond hearing before an immigration judge. Instead, they cannot be released unless the Homeland Security Department makes an exception.

The directive, first reported by The Washington Post, signals wider use of a 1996 law to detain people who had previously been allowed to remain free while their cases wind through immigration court.

Asked Tuesday to comment on the memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said, “The Biden administration dangerously unleashed millions of unvetted illegal aliens into the country — and they used many loopholes to do so. President (Donald) Trump and Secretary (Kristi) Noem are now enforcing this law as it was actually written to keep America safe.”

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/immigration-detention-ice-trump-e1c2322c3f88c1f7d7e83c8c42109cb6