Editor’s note: KTLA reached out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for comment prior to publication. As of publishing, DHS has not responded. KTLA will update this article with any new information as it becomes available.
Those taken into custody during immigration raids in Los Angeles and elsewhere are far less likely to be released pending deportation hearings amid a new interpretation of a decades-old rule.
As reported by CBS News, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is directing its attorneys to “argue in immigration court that detainees facing deportation are not eligible to be released on bond if they entered the U.S. illegally,” a position that emerged from “reinterpreting an immigration law from the 1990s.”
“Previously, ICE’s mandatory detention policy was generally limited to recent border-crossers and noncitizens convicted of certain crimes,” CBS News added.
Immigration attorney Alma Rosa Nieto told KTLA’s Jennifer McGraw that such a plan likely won’t help the federal government reduce the number of people coming into the country illegally.
Instead, it sends a message to those already here, she said.
“The messages being sent to families and those detained (are) that they should just self-deport and not even pursue the right to fight against losing their green card or to fight for immigration relief that many have a right for,” she said.
When speaking to the Washington Post, Greg Chen, senior director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, pointed out that this change also will keep more people in custody.
“This is their way of putting in place nationwide a method of detaining even more people,” Chen said. “It’s requiring the detention of far more people without any real review of their individual circumstances.”
The facilities used to detain people in immigration cases have often been criticized for overcrowded housing, a lack of mental health care and other issues.
DHS did not immediately return KTLA’s request for comment. This story will be updated when a response is received.
