Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul urged a federal court to strike down a Department of Homeland Security policy denying bond hearings to detained immigrants in a legal brief filed Tuesday.
In the amicus brief, Raoul and 19 other attorneys general rejected the federal policy giving Immigration and Customs Enforcement the authority to detain unauthorized immigrants without giving them opportunity to attend a bond hearing.
The policy was implemented in July as a new interpretation of an existing law that says immigrants in the U.S. without legal status “shall be detained” after their arrest, according to The Washington Post. In a memo sent to immigration enforcement employees, ICE acting director Todd Lyons said such immigrants should be detained “for the duration of their removal proceedings.”
Wednesday’s brief was filed in an ongoing class action lawsuit filed by immigrants rights activists against the Trump administration over the policy.
“Detention pending removal proceedings can last many months or even years, while noncitizens seek in those proceedings to prove they should be permitted to remain in the United States,” the brief reads. “Their unnecessary detention while pursuing such efforts inflicts irreparable harms on them, their families, their communities and their States.”
Immigrants living in the U.S. have long had the right to request a bond hearing to argue for their release as their immigration case was pending. Detaining immigrants without a hearing limits their ability to access legal representation, violating due process, according to the attorneys general.
“This new federal policy mandating indefinite detention without an option of a bond hearing will disrupt our labor force while wasting taxpayer dollars and harming families,” Raoul said in a news release announcing the brief.
Raoul and other attorneys general also raised questions and criticisms about the safety of detention centers and dangers the detention could pose to immigrants. Fear of detention can deter immigrants from seeking health care and reporting crimes, the release said.
The policy is also financially irresponsible, Raoul and other attorneys general argue. Households led by people without legal status paid nearly $90 billion in taxes and $300 billion in consumer spending in 2023, the release said. And last year, immigration detention cost $3.4 billion in taxpayer dollars.
Since President Donald Trump returned to office in January, his administration has waged a monthslong deportation campaign, with ICE launching raids in major cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles.
Trump recently threatened to send the National Guard to Chicago and ramp up ICE operations in the city despite objections from local leaders, including Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker. About 230 agents could begin early morning raids and patrols in unmarked vehicles.