President Donald Trump’s administration has moved to end bond hearings for illegal immigrants facing deportation, issuing new interim guidance that requires all unauthorized border crossers to remain in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention for the duration of their court proceedings.
The directive, signed by acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, is expected to impact millions of foreign nationals currently in the country unlawfully. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the change reinstates a longstanding enforcement policy and was made possible by sweeping funding increases passed through the Big Beautiful Bill — President Trump’s flagship immigration legislation.
“The Biden administration dangerously unleashed millions of unvetted illegal aliens into American communities — and they used many loopholes to do so,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in a statement. “President Trump and Secretary Noem are now enforcing this law as it was actually written to keep America safe.”
Previously, due to limited detention space, many illegal migrants were released pending their immigration hearings — a practice critics said contributed to long delays and high failure-to-appear rates in court. The new directive aims to reverse that trend by expanding federal detention capacity and closing bond release pathways for migrants who enter between ports of entry.
Under current law, ICE already mandates detention without bond for certain criminal offenders, including those convicted of murder, aggravated felonies, or crimes of moral turpitude. The new guidance now applies mandatory detention to all illegal border crossers during their proceedings, regardless of criminal history.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, told the Washington Post, “You’re pretty much guaranteed to be able to remove the person… if he’s in detention.” He added, “Detention is absolutely the best way to approach this, if you can do it.”
The Big Beautiful Bill allocates $170 billion for immigration and border enforcement over the next four years, with $45 billion specifically dedicated to ICE detention expansion. According to ICE, the number of beds is projected to increase from about 58,000 to nearly 100,000.
As of June 29, ICE reported holding over 57,800 individuals in detention nationwide. The agency’s annual report states noncitizens are detained “only when necessary,” but the Trump administration’s approach signals a shift toward broader use of detention to enforce immigration law.
