Politico 9/8/25
A powerful Justice Department appeals panel has declared that anyone in deportation proceedings who entered the U.S. without legal authorization is not entitled to be considered for release on bond by an immigration judge.The ruling upends a decadeslong understanding of federal law and could subject millions of immigrants to mandatory detention — a loss of liberty that advocates say could cause many to voluntarily leave the country even if they have meritorious cases to remain.The BIA ruling, however, is not binding on the judicial branch. And under recent Supreme Court precedents it is unclear how much weight those judges — and ultimately the Supreme Court — will give to the Justice Department’s view of the law.One former immigration judge, Dana Leigh Marks, said in an interview that the ruling seems intended to encourage those in deportation proceedings to give up the fight and agree to return to their countries of origin or another country.While the decision could trigger a wave of new appeals in federal courts, immigrants in various parts of the country have already filed cases in federal district courts challenging as illegal the practice of denying them a bond hearing.In dozens of cases in recent months, district court judges have sided with the immigrants, finding that the deportation scheme enacted by Congress was intended to distinguish between those apprehended at the border or shortly after entering and those who had been residing in the United States long-term. Those rulings have pointed to a 2018 Supreme Court precedent as supporting that distinction.