In the current state of things, it seems that an ICE officer is at times more powerful than a judge.
In a memo dated July?8,?2025, Acting ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Director Todd M. Lyons announced that immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally are no longer eligible for bond hearings. Instead, they must remain in custody for the entire duration of removal proceedings—sometimes lasting months or even years—unless they receive discretionary parole from an ICE officer, not a judge.
Lyons knows how unusual this directive is. In his memo he acknowledges that the directive is likely to be litigated, and in fact in late July a class action lawsuit regarding the new policy was filed. This marks a dramatic departure from prior policy under both Biden and the earlier Trump administration, where bond hearings were routinely available to those detained—especially asylum seekers and long-term undocumented residents.
The current policy applies nationwide, even to long-term residents with deep familial ties and no criminal history. ICE is holding about 56,000 people per day, as officers work towards Trump’s goal of deporting one million people in his first year back in office.
The policy aligns with a remarkable scale?up in detention infrastructure: Congress allocated $45?billion toward ICE expansion—planning for 100,000 detention beds, doubling prior capacity. Meanwhile, the number of immigration judges has reportedly declined, exacerbating the case backlog to 3.7 million and making meaningful hearings even less accessible.
The categorical elimination of bond hearings strongly conflicts with due process norms that require individualized hearings before deprivation of liberty. The Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states that “no person shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Detention without any judicial oversight or assessment is constitutionally suspect, but the Trump administration holds the belief that undocumented immigrants do not have the same due process protections that documented immigrants and citizens do.
It is anticipated that this policy will likely be litigated up to the Supreme Court, but in the meantime the result is that detained individuals—often long-standing residents with no criminal history—risk swift deportation or indefinite detention without ever getting before a judge. The legal challenges underway have significant implications for immigration law, constitutional rights, and the functioning of the detention system, and we will update you on the outcomes when court rulings are made.
If you need assistance filing for an immigration petition, you can reach us at (757) 422-8472, or send us a message on our website. You can also schedule an appointment with one of our attorneys by clicking on this link.
