California joined a growing legal fight against a Trump administration immigration policy requiring many detained undocumented immigrants to remain in custody without the opportunity to request a bond hearing. The hearings are used to determine whether a defendant can be released from jail before a trial and under what conditions.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Wednesday he is co-leading a multistate coalition filing amicus briefs in several federal cases challenging the policy. Bonta argued the policy violates due process and goes against the intent of Congress regarding immigration law.
The federal government’s interpretation of immigration law now bars many noncitizens who entered the country without inspection from asking a judge for release while their cases are pending regardless of their lack of criminal history.
The administration has defended its nationwide policy arguing that immigration law mandates detention of any “applicant for admission” who does not have proof that they are allowed to be in the country. This is also part of a broader push to expand on Trump’s campaign promise for stricter immigration policies.
Bonta said in a statement that the policy is already leading to record detention levels and worsening conditions inside facilities.
“The Trump administration’s policy isn’t making America greater or safer, it is creating harms that are rippling far beyond detention centers,” he stated. “Children are losing parents, families are losing income stability and communities are losing vital members.”
Advocates on the ground are already seeing those effects.
Giselle Garcia, program director with NorCal Resist, said many of those detained in Sacramento are primary earners for their families.
“They are emotionally suffering, financially suffering since most of the folks who are being picked up are the financial breadwinners of the home,” Garcia said. “Families are also struggling to be able to put money on commissary because … the family has to put money on their loved one’s books to be able to have a phone call.”
Garcia also said eliminating bond hearings means people are detained for longer in often harsh conditions.
“Unfortunately, conditions inside of these immigration detention centers are prison-like conditions and sometimes even worse,” she stressed.
The American Civil Liberties Union has documented inhumane conditions at several immigrant detention facilities in California, New York, Kansas and Florida, among others.
The policy marks a stark shift from longstanding immigration practice, according to Dana Leigh Marks. The retired judge who served in San Francisco for 35 years sees the change as politically motivated rather than based on sound legal precedent.
“If someone is not a flight risk and not a risk to the security of the United States, the vast majority of individuals are then entitled to be released from immigration detention by posting a bond or bail,” she said.
Both Marks and Garcia argue the policy is also reinforcing the role of private detention facilities in the immigration system.
“This is simply a way to continue to monetize the benefits of the private prison industry by making it impossible for these people to be released from custody,” Marks emphasized, adding that “huge amounts of profit” are flowing through those companies.
Garcia has worked with many incarcerated detainees who have described inhumane conditions inside facilities, including black mold in cells, a lack of adequate medical care and being served expired food.
Data from Detention Watch Network, an advocacy group that tracks immigration detention, shows that over 90 percent of detainees are being held in privately-operated facilities.
“These companies, they get paid based on how full these facilities are,” Garcia said. “So the incentive to incarcerate immigrants is high for the corporation and the profit margins are higher if conditions at these facilities are abysmal.”
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