• The Trump administration shifts policy to deny bond hearings for migrants, increasing detention numbers significantly.
• The new immigration policy could impact millions of undocumented immigrants contesting deportation.
• Funding for immigrant detention has increased, allowing for a larger capacity in detention facilities.

The Trump administration is launching a new effort to keep immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally detained by denying them bond hearings, as revealed in an internal memo obtained by multiple sources. This policy shift is anticipated to swell the numbers of individuals held in immigration detention facilities from a record 58,000. Congress has recently approved funding to increase the detention capacity to at least 100,000 individuals, further pushing the measures for mass deportations as part of President Trump's immigration strategy, aimed at addressing what he describes as high levels of illegal immigration under the previous administration, according to trtglobal and Reuters.

The new guidance from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) instructs officials to reinterpret existing immigration laws to categorize many immigrants under "prohibitions on release" after their arrests. The memo, dated July 8, states that ICE is expected to present arguments favoring continued detention of individuals contesting their deportations. Tom Jawetz, a former DHS official, commented on the legal implications of this policy, calling it "a radical departure that could explode the detention population," as reported by Newsweek and CBS News.

The implications of this policy are significant, potentially affecting millions who have unlawfully entered the United States and who are currently contesting removal proceedings. Under the new rules, ICE will likely argue that immigrants, regardless of how long they have lived in the U.S., are ineligible for bond hearings if they entered without inspection. Historically, this was applicable only to recent border crossers and individuals convicted of specific crimes, shifting the landscape for many who could have previously sought release on bond, according to Newsweek and CBS News.

Moreover, the passage of the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" has allocated substantial funding for ICE, proposing to hire thousands of new deportation officers and establish additional infrastructure to house detainees. This act is perceived as an integral part of Trump's broader immigration enforcement strategy, marking a substantial increase in resources devoted to immigration control, as reported by Reuters and CBS News.