Trump administration to deny US migrants bond hearings in ‘radical departure' to keep them detained
Congress authorised spending to hold 100 000 people in detention facilities.
Immigration authorities may also deport migrants to third countries quickly.
The Trump administration is launching a new effort to keep immigrants who entered the US illegally detained by denying them bond hearings, an internal memo showed, a change that could further swell the numbers of those held.
The guidance by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a portion of which Reuters reviewed, could be applied to millions of people who crossed the border illegally and are contesting their deportation.
US President Donald Trump has vowed mass deportations, which he says are needed after high levels of illegal immigration under his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.
Congress passed a spending law this month that provides funding to detain at least 100 000 people, a steep increase over the record 58 000 in custody by late June.
The Washington Post first reported the new ICE policy limiting bond hearing eligibility, citing an 8 July memo by its acting director, Todd Lyons.
The guidance shared with Reuters called for ICE to interpret several immigration law provisions as 'prohibitions on release' after an arrest, adding the shift in policy was 'likely to be litigated'.
Pedro Mattey/AFP
It encouraged ICE prosecutors 'to make alternative arguments in support of continued detention' during immigration court hearings.
The new policy appeared to reverse legal standards governing detention for decades, said Tom Jawetz, a former homeland security official in the Biden administration, calling it 'a radical departure that could explode the detention population'.
The US Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
US immigration officials may deport migrants to countries other than their home nations with as little as six hours' notice, Lyons said in a memo, offering a preview of how deportations could ramp up.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement will generally wait at least 24 hours to deport someone after informing them of their removal to a so-called 'third country', according to a memo dated Wednesday, 9 July.
Herika Martinez/AFP
ICE could remove them, however, to a so-called 'third country' with as little as six hours' notice 'in exigent circumstances', said the memo, as long as the person has been provided the chance to speak with an attorney.
The memo states that migrants could be sent to nations that have pledged not to persecute or torture them 'without the need for further procedures'.
The new ICE policy suggests Trump's administration could move quickly to send migrants to countries around the world.
The Supreme Court in June lifted a lower court's order limiting such deportations without a screening for fear of persecution in the destination country.
Following the high court's ruling and a subsequent order from the justices, the Trump administration sent eight migrants from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Sudan and Vietnam to South Sudan.
Herika Martinez/AFP
The administration last week pressed officials from five African nations - Liberia, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Gabon - to accept deportees from elsewhere, Reuters reported.
The Washington Post first reported the new ICE memo.
The administration argues the third country deportations help swiftly remove migrants who should not be in the US, including those with criminal convictions.
Advocates have criticised the deportations as dangerous and cruel, since people could be sent to countries where they could face violence, have no ties and do not speak the language.
Trina Realmuto, a lawyer for a group of migrants pursuing a class action lawsuit against such rapid third-county deportations at the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, said the policy 'falls far short of providing the statutory and due process protections that the law requires'.
Third-country deportations have been done in the past, but the tool could be more frequently used as Trump tries to ramp up deportations to record levels.
During Trump's 2017-2021 presidency, his administration deported small numbers of people from El Salvador and Honduras to Guatemala.
Former president Joe Biden's Democratic administration struck a deal with Mexico to take thousands of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, since it was difficult to deport migrants to those nations.
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