The Trump administration has dramatically curtailed the ability for those facing deportation to be released from immigration detention, its latest effort to expand the scope of its sweeping immigration crackdown, sources briefed on the policy change told CBS News.
By reinterpreting an immigration law from the 1990s, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is now instructing officials to argue in immigration court that detainees facing deportation are not eligible to be released on bond if they entered the U.S. illegally.
Previously, ICE’s mandatory detention policy was generally limited to recent border-crossers and noncitizens convicted of certain crimes.
Immigrants who had lived in the U.S. unlawfully for years were eligible for bond hearings and the opportunity to persuade an immigration judge that they were not flight risks and should be allowed to fight their deportation outside of a detention center. But under the policy shift, their only avenue to be released would be if ICE officials — not immigration judges — agree to “parole” them out of custody.
The policy change last week came about after the Department of Homeland Security “revisited its legal position on detention and release authorities,” in coordination with the Justice Department, according to one of the sources, who read portions of a memo outlining the shift.
According to the source, the memo says all noncitizens who were not formally admitted into the U.S., and entered between or at ports of entry, face detention under Section 235 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which says those subject to it “shall be detained.”
The Washington Post first reported the new detention rules.
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said President Trump and Secretary Kristi Noem “are now enforcing this law as it was actually written to keep America safe.”
“Politicians and activists can cry wolf all they want, but it won’t deter this administration from keeping these criminals and lawbreakers off American streets — and now thanks to the Big Beautiful Bill, we will have plenty of bed space to do so,” she added.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by Mr. Trump earlier this month, allocated an unprecedented amount of money towards immigration enforcement and border security, with $75 billion given to ICE alone.
Administration officials have said they plan to use the massive funding infusion to hire 10,000 deportation officers and give ICE the ability to hold more than 100,000 detainees at any given time. On Tuesday morning, ICE was holding more than 58,000 detainees facing deportation, according to internal agency data shared with CBS News.
Greg Chen, the head of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said ICE officials in more than a dozen immigration courts have been telling judges in recent days that the new policy change requires the detention of those who entered the country illegally, irrespective of how recently.
“This automatic detention rule means hundreds of thousands of people will be deprived of their liberty, even if there’s no need for them to be detained,” Chen said.