This site explained in May how the government came to argue that anyone who entered without inspection has no right to a bond hearing, and how the courts of appeals split over it. The split has since widened, and for the family of a detained person it is now the first question a lawyer asks: where is the facility?
The three doors
Bond, under INA 236(a): an immigration judge sets an amount of at least $1,500, or releases on conditions, if satisfied the person is neither a danger nor a flight risk.
Parole, under INA 212(d)(5): ICE itself releases a person temporarily, for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. The regulation lists serious medical conditions, pregnancy, certain juveniles, witnesses, and detention that is not in the public interest.
Habeas corpus, under 28 U.S.C. 2241: a petition in federal district court asking a judge to rule the detention unlawful, and to order a hearing or release.
Which doors are open
For a person who was admitted on a visa and overstayed, or who is a permanent resident, the bond door is open everywhere, subject to the mandatory detention grounds for certain criminal convictions, which the Laken Riley Act widened in January 2025.
For a person who entered without inspection, it depends on the circuit. Since the Board of Immigration Appeals decided Matter of Yajure Hurtado in September 2025, the government's position is that such a person is an "applicant for admission" subject to mandatory detention with no bond hearing, however long they have lived here.
As of this month:
- For the government, no bond hearing: the Fifth Circuit (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi) and the Eighth (the upper Midwest). The Fifth Circuit's full bench hears a separate due process challenge on September 24, after vacating a July panel decision that had required a hearing after 90 days.
- Against the government, bond hearings available: the First, Second, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Circuits, the last four all deciding between June 30 and August 13, 2026.
- Argued and undecided: the Third and Fourth.
- Supreme Court: three petitions pending, none yet granted. The question will be decided there, probably in the coming term.
The consequence is stark and, for now, the law: a person held in Louisiana has no bond hearing; the same person held in California does. ICE's transfer practice, described in this site's piece on finding a detained person, has to be read with that map in hand.
The bond hearing
Where available, it is requested from the immigration judge, orally at a hearing or by written motion; there is no form. The burden is on the detained person to show they are not a danger and not a flight risk, under two Board precedents from 1999 and 2006 that give the judge wide discretion. Evidence of residence, family, employment, tax compliance and community ties is what wins. TRAC put the median bond at $6,500 in January 2025 and $3,500 in June 2025, the lowest in nearly two decades.
Bond is posted on Form I-352 through ICE's CeBONDS system, by a citizen, permanent resident, law firm or nonprofit, by wire or bank transfer, or in person at an ERO office. Release usually follows within a day.
The parole request
Where the bond door is closed, parole is the administrative route. The request goes to the deportation officer at the ERO field office holding the case, with evidence of the humanitarian ground: medical records, proof of pregnancy, the caregiving situation, the public interest argument. There is no filing fee for the request. If parole is granted, H.R. 1's parole fee, $1,020 in 2026, attaches on the grant. Grants are discretionary and, under the current guidance, rare.
The habeas petition
This is the route through which every ruling against the government was won. A petition under section 2241 is filed in the federal district court for the district where the person is confined, naming the warden as the custodian. It can be filed by the detainee or by a family member as "next friend." It asks the court to find the detention unlawful and to order a bond hearing, release, or an end to prolonged detention. For people held after a final removal order, the Supreme Court's 2001 decision in Zadvydas presumes six months to be the reasonable limit.
Habeas needs a lawyer, and increasingly a lawyer who has filed one before; district courts in some regions have seen hundreds since the fall of 2025.
Fees
Since February 23, 2026 the immigration courts accept electronic payment only. An appeal to the Board costs $1,030; a motion to reopen or reconsider $1,030 at the Board and $1,065 before the judge. Bond appeals remain free.
What to do
- Find the facility, and therefore the circuit. That answer determines the strategy.
- Where bond is available, assemble the ties evidence and request a hearing at once.
- Where it is not, file the parole request with the field office and, in parallel, prepare the habeas petition.
- Keep the money ready. Release can come within a day of a decision, and the bond must be posted by someone with status.
- Get counsel who knows the circuit's current law. It has changed nine times in fourteen months.