{"id":792008,"date":"2026-05-12T22:14:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T22:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/792008\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T22:14:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T22:14:16","slug":"nyc-immigrant-advocates-sue-over-trump-admins-refusal-to-share-new-policies-for-judges-denying-detainees-bond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/792008\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC immigrant advocates sue over Trump admin\u2019s refusal to share new policies for judges denying detainees bond"},"content":{"rendered":"

An immigrant legal advocacy group filed suit<\/a> Monday against the Department of Justice in an effort to elucidate what new policies federal immigration judges are being directed to follow when denying bond to immigrants who\u2019ve been detained<\/a>.<\/p>\n

New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG)<\/a> alleges the DOJ didn\u2019t respond to its Freedom of Information Act request seeking materials and communication between the Justice Department and immigration judges, like those at 26 Federal Plaza, regarding policies, practices, guidance documents and directives governing when bond should be granted or denied, which it filed in Manhattan federal court after bond denials spiked during Trump\u2019s second term.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

NYLAG attorneys Kate Fetrow and Shannon Lee told amNewYork that, previously, immigration judges would grant bond to detained immigrants as their removal cases proceeded as long as they weren\u2019t a flight risk or a threat to society. Now, the attorneys say, clients who would\u2019ve been let out of detention are being kept locked up for months on end for reasons that don\u2019t make sense, and they can\u2019t figure out why.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to know what the standards are that immigration judges are using,\u201d Lee said. \u201cFrom NYLAG\u2019s perspective, it feels like the Department of Justice is rewriting the rules to a game that none of us are privy to. If we don\u2019t know what the rules are and the standards are, it makes representing our clients incredibly difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just 346 immigrants were granted bond between January and March of this year \u2013 a shocking drop from just one year ago, when 2,400 immigrants were released on bond each month, according to NYLAG\u2019s suit.<\/p>\n

The Department of Justice declined to respond to amNewYork\u2019s questions on the suit and on the policies immigration judges are being directed to follow when denying bond, stating it does not comment on pending litigation.<\/p>\n

Immigrant advocates cite \u2018important need\u2019 to know bond policies<\/p>\n

NYLAG\u2019s suit says that there\u2019s an \u201cimportant need\u201d for the DOJ to provide it with this information, as bond requests are the main \u2014 and often the only \u2014 avenue detained immigrants have to challenge their detention and seek release. It accuses the Trump administration of rendering bond hearings meaningless, stating that the outcome feels predetermined against immigrants before they even step into the room, which, the group says, is a barrier to their safety and liberty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fetrow emphasized that immigrants detained who are seeking bond typically haven\u2019t been convicted of a crime, calling the Trump administration\u2019s bond denials a violation of the principles of a free society and saying the DOJ\u2019s \u201cundermined\u201d the constitutional permissible rationales for denying bond.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis profound realigning of who is detained \u2026 for absolutely no reason and with no way to meaningfully challenge that detention has a huge impact on thousands of people across the country, thousands of New Yorkers, as well as their communities and their loved ones,\u201d Fetrow said. \u201cIt has vastly expanded the number of people who are being held in prison for no reason at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Immigration judges denying bond in hearings at a higher rate due to unclear guidelines that attorneys find hard to understand is only part of the problem in immigration court, Fetrow and Lee said. Additionally, it is concerning that judges are denying the majority of bond hearings point-blank, meaning immigrants aren\u2019t even getting the chance to be heard in court, however pointless those hearings seem.<\/p>\n

That increased denial of bond hearings is part of what\u2019s led attorneys to file habeas corpus petitions as an alternative to get their clients out of detention, Lee said. And, U.S. district judges in federal courts have also reportedly<\/a> carried out arbitrary denials of habeas petitions, making things increasingly difficult for attorneys and immigrants and driving up the detainee jail population.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fetrow and Lee say they hope that gaining clarity on the policies immigration judges are basing their bond decisions on will help them more effectively represent their detained clients. They said they expect the Manhattan federal court to compel the Trump administration to release this information.<\/p>\n

Beyond helping attorneys litigate each client\u2019s individual case, Lee said, the information might allow NYLAG to file additional legal claims against the Justice Department to challenge whatever the new policies actually are, though she said it\u2019s too early to tell.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, the goal is to pursue a broader sense of justice and ensure that the institution of immigration courts is being held accountable,\u201d Lee said. \u201cWhat you have is essentially a government entity that has extraordinary power over individual liberty that\u2019s only held in the hands of executive branch adjudicators with almost zero oversight. We\u2019re trying to open greater transparency into this process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An immigrant legal advocacy group filed suit Monday against the Department of Justice in an effort to elucidate…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":792009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,9611,409,3228,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,45113,277,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-792008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-department-of-justice","10":"tag-immigration","11":"tag-law","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-nylag","19":"tag-trump","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116563913538375387","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}