How can I get out of immigration

detention? If you or someone you love

recently got picked up by ICE and put

into immigration detention, this is the

simple question you're probably asking.

How do I get out of here? Hi, I'm Jim

Hacking, immigration lawyer practicing

law throughout the United States out of

our offices in St. Louis, San Diego,

Washington DC, and Chicago, Illinois. In

this video, we are going to tackle the

topic of immigration detention.

Sometimes it's a local jail. Sometimes

it's an immigration detention center

like we're seeing up in Broadview

outside of Chicago, Illinois. We want

you to understand what the rules are for

immigrants who are facing deportation,

who gets put into detention, how you can

get out of detention, and what hope

there is for anybody who has been

detained. Every day, people are being

picked up by ICE. Some at the border,

some inside the United States, some

who've been here for many, many years.

And when you get taken into custody,

you're either released or put in

detention. And that's what this video is

about. Who gets put into detention.

We're also going to talk about how

recent changes, including a recent Board

of Immigration Appeals decision called

matter of herado, makes it much harder

for certain people who enter the United

States without inspection, that is who

came across the border, how hard it is

for them to get bond and released from

immigration detention. These days in

2025, people are finding themselves in

immigration detention in many, many

ways. It might be after a local arrest

or getting out of a city jail for some

kind of criminal matter. Or it could be

someone who shows up at the airport or

the border without proper inspection and

proper documentation that they have the

legal right to be here. It could be when

ICE reinstates an old deportation order.

But with Thomas Hman and others from ICE

invading cities and trying to find

immigrants to deport so that they can

meet their quota of deporting thousands

of immigrants every single day. Many

more people are ending up in immigration

detention. And the recent big bill from

President Trump authorized ICE's budget

to greatly expand and that means more

and more people are going to find

themselves in detention. In fact, in

Texas, they're building detention

centers at a massive scale. The ironic

thing is that ICE, Immigration Customs

Enforcement, takes the position that

detention is not criminal, that it's

civil, that it's a civil proceeding, and

that you're only being held while your

case is being decided whether or not you

get to stay in the United States. But

the conditions that many immigrants find

themselves living in in immigration

detention is like a hell hole. It's

horrible. They're getting worms in their

food. They're getting maltreated.

They're sleeping on the floor. They have

no blankets. it's cold or it's hot.

These are terrible conditions. And of

course, that's by design. ICE wants to

use immigration detention as a deterrent

for immigrants who want to either come

to the United States or who fear getting

put into detention to get them to just

leave voluntarily. You might be thinking

to yourself, well, civil detention in a

city jail or detention facility just for

a few days while I get bonded out or I

get released, that shouldn't be too

hard. I should be able to do that. But

in fact, immigration detention can go on

for months and months. It's a hammer

that ICE and the Department of Homeland

are here to use to get people to throw

in the towel. I recently had some

clients from Indonesia who had pending

asylum applications, they found

themselves not only in immigration

removal proceedings, but the judge

determined that they were a flight risk

and decided that they had to stay in

jail. So, they were going to sit in jail

for months and months waiting for their

immigration asylum hearing to see if

they got to stay here. and they decided

to throw in the towel because detention

was so difficult. So, we're going to

talk about who can get out on bond, how

you apply for bond, what bond is, and

who is not eligible for bond. So, how do

people actually get out of immigration

detention? Well, there's four main ways

or approaches to getting released from

immigration detention. The first is when

you're first taken into custody,

sometimes ICE lets people out on what's

called their own recgnissance. They are

allowed to leave. They do not have to

post a bond. ICE does not keep them

overnight. They process them. They

initiate the deportation proceedings.

They issue the person a notice to appear

at a future date and they release them.

This is becoming rarer and rarer because

of the quotas, because of the increase

in the available beds that are out there

for ICE to put immigration detainees.

The option of ICE actually releasing

people back after they've taken them

into custody out into the community,

that's happening very rarely. It's

called an order of supervision, but ICE

is giving this out very sparingly. This

initial determination by ICE as to

whether or not you get taken into

custody is completely discretionary.

There's no way to review it by a judge.

It's just does ICE let this person out?

If not, they're going to be put into the

system. They're going to be detained

either at a local jail or at an

immigration detention facility and

eventually they're going to get to see a

judge. That might be three, four, five

weeks later. So, if ICE lets you out,

you can see the great advantage. you're

not being detained for as long. ICE is

going to have, like I said, unfettered

discretion who they throw into jail, who

they let out. So, you can see the

benefit of being released by ICE on your

own recgnissance, not having to see a

judge, not having to wait a month or 5

weeks to see the judge to get your bond

determination reheard. The second, which

is the main way that people get out of

ICE custody, is when they see an

immigration judge. They can ask for

what's called a bond redetermination.

ICE has determined that you are not

getting released on bond, you can ask an

immigration judge to make a bond

determination. Here in Missouri, there's

one judge who does all of the detained

docket. In other courts, each judge

handles their own detained docket or

certain judges handle the detained

docket. And that is in the initial

decisionmaking as to whether or not this

person is going to have to sit in

immigration detention, sit in jail until

they have their actual court date. After

ICE makes its determination, then you

have the right to ask a judge to release

you on bond or under conditions or bond

and conditions. And that's your next

best shot at getting out of ICE custody.

The Board of Immigration Appeals has

said that it is the immigrant's burden

to show that they're not a flight risk

and that they're not a danger to

community. So, they put the burden on

the immigrant to show that that

immigrant is going to show up for court,

that they're not a flight risk. that

means they're not going to leave the

United States or leave the jurisdiction

or hide from ICE and that they're not a

menace to society, that they're not

going to do bad things to society in

general. And those are the two things

that a judge takes into account when

deciding whether or not to let somebody

out. So you can see if I give you two

different examples, somebody who just

came to the United States who doesn't

have significant ties versus somebody

who's been in the United States working,

married to a US citizen with a family,

who's never been in any kind of criminal

history. They're more likely to get bond

than someone who just arrived, who

doesn't have strong ties, who doesn't

have a steady job, those kinds of

things. That's the balance that the

judge is trying to decide. And of

course, they're going to heir on the

side of detaining the person. But if you

can demonstrate that you're not a flight

risk and that you have significant ties

and maybe even that you have a good

defense to deportation, those are the

kinds of things that might lead a judge

to let you out on bond. To prove that

you're not a flight risk, you're going

to want to have your attorney submit

evidence of your good moral character,

of how you contribute to society, of

your ties, any property that you own,

family connections, all those kinds of

things go into the bond redetermination

application that you file with the

court. Then the judge will have a

hearing on the issue of whether or not

you get released. You'll probably be

attending that hearing by video. Your

attorney might be there with the judge

or on video themselves. They'll make

their pitch for why you should be

released on a bond. And then the judge

will tackle the issue of what bond

should I set. Bonds usually range

anywhere from say $1,500 or $5,000 to up

to $25,000. They want to make sure that

you're going to come back. And if you

miss court, if you get removed in

absentia, if you get a deportation order

because you didn't show up to court,

then the person who post your bond could

lose that money. If the judge grants you

bond, you don't get to leave right away.

You have to actually post the shity or

the bond money. You might be able to get

away with putting down 10% and hiring a

bail bondsman to handle the rest. And

then the the court will give that money

to the bail bondsman. the 10% that you

put down, that's usually the bail

bondman's charge for posting your bond.

And if the judge denies bond, you can

appeal that to the board of immigration

appeals. You usually have 30 days to

make that application. The third set of

people who don't get detained are given

what's called alternatives to detention,

ATD. It might be an ankle monitor

bracelet. It might be an order of

supervision where you have to come in

and check once a month, maybe actually

in person at the ICE office or with an

app where you show them where you are to

make sure that they know where you are

and they're keeping track of you. Those

are sort of another option for

detention. Now, of course, this is still

government supervision, but it's much

better than being locked up. And if you

get to use the app or just check-ins,

that's better than the ankle monitor.

And of course, you have to pay for that

ankle monitor. You have to pay for the

app. You have to pay for the ability to

be out on your own. And if you miss a

check-in or if you take off your ankle

bracelet or if you do anything else to

violate the terms of your alternative to

detention, you're going to be taken back

into custody by ICE. You're not going to

be released again and you're going to

stay in jail until you get your court

date. And the fourth and last set of

people who don't end up in immigration

detention or who get out on detention

are people who file what are called rits

of habius corpus. So that's an action in

federal court. So one thing you need to

understand is that immigration judges

are not true federal judges. They're not

what's called article 3 federal judges.

That means that they are not appointed

for life. They serve at the pleasure of

the president and the department of

homeland security. They can be replaced

as we're seeing over and over with

people that are deemed too pro-immigrant

being removed from the bench and

substituted with people who will just

run that deportation machine as fast as

they can. When people are in front of an

immigration judge, that's part of the

Department of Justice. That's not an

article 3 federal judge who's appointed

for life and who has that independence.

So when you file a rid of habius corpus,

you file it in the federal judicial

district in which the person is being

held and you file that action against

the people that are holding that person

and you're either arguing that the

person has been detained for too long or

that there's some legal reason why the

person should not be detained. So for

those reasons, those people can

challenge in federal court the decision

of the immigration judge not to let the

person out on bond. We were seeing this

now more and more with this case that

I'm going to talk about in a little bit

called matter of herado where the board

of immigration appeals took the position

that people who entered without

inspection are not entitled to bond.

Lawyers are challenging that in federal

court through rits of habius corpus and

federal courts are ruling accordingly.

Rits of habius corpus are expensive.

They're difficult. Federal judges don't

necessarily like them, but they're

seeing more and more of them because ICE

is not following the law when it comes

to detaining people. And that's what you

would challenge in federal court through

a RIT. Now, let's talk about those

people who can't get out on bond.

There's something in the Immigration and

Nationality Act called mandatory

detention. There are certain classes of

people who by law have to be detained

until the immigration judge determines

whether or not they get deported. And so

those are people that are subject to

mandatory detention. There's no right of

an immigration judge to let the person

out. You could have the best lawyer in

the world, but if you are one of these

people that fall into the category of

mandatory detention, you will not get

bond. So, a lot of times fighting over

mandatory detention involves fighting

over whether or not the person's been

convicted of an aggravated felony. So,

sometimes when you win on bond, it helps

your overall defense. So, if you can

convince a judge that your client is not

an aggravated felon, then they would get

out on bond, they'd be eligible for

bond, they'd be eligible for being

released. And that would also help

support the underlying case that the

person might not be deportable because

they did not commit an aggravated

felony. I had a case just like that

where once I won on the bond issue that

made it much easier for me to get my

client his green card back. So let's

talk about the people that aren't bond

eligible. So certainly if you've been

convicted of a serious crime like an

aggravated felony, you are statutoily

ineligible for bond. You will not get

out. So, drug trafficking, serious, you

know, murder, big crimes, big federal

crimes, those are the kinds of things

that you're not going to be eligible for

bond. And of course, that's true even if

you've already committed your criminal

sentence. Remember, immigration is

civil. Remember, they're using mandatory

detention to get you to throw in the

towel and leave, and you are only being

held civily. So, the lot of the rules

and protections that are out there for

criminals who are in jail are not there

and you're subject to mandatory

detention because of the crimes for

which you've been convicted. If you've

been ordered deported before or if ICE

tries to reinstate your prior

deportation order, you are subject to

called mandatory detention. And in those

situations, you probably only have

asylum or protection against torture as

your defenses to deportation. And you

would be detained that whole time while

waiting for your asylum case to be heard

by the judge. And then if you're

considered what's called an arriving

alien, that is you were caught at the

border or caught at the airport or now

the board of immigration appeals is

saying anybody who entered the United

States without inspection is an arriving

alien and therefore those people are

also subject to mandatory detention.

There's no right to a bond in any of

these situations and you will be

detained the entire time that your case

is pending. So let's talk about the

steps of getting bond if you are

eligible. First, your attorney files a

motion for a bond hearing with the

immigration court. The attorney will

need to show community ties like

connection to a US citizen relatives, a

stable address, a good working history,

property that you own, anything like

that. Then the judge has to decide, are

you dangerous or are you likely to flee

and not come back to immigration court?

Am I going to have to chase you down is

basically what the judge is wondering.

Or are you going to go out and commit

some crime and make me look bad for

letting you out on bond. So there's a

lot of weight pushing on the judge to

keep you in detention. If the judge is

satisfied, then you get released on

bond. If you don't, then you're subject

to detention. You can appeal it, but the

Board of Immigration Appeals is going to

side with the immigration judge and with

ICE and not let you sit outside of

immigration detention while your

immigration case is pending in the vast

majority of cases. They're just going to

rubber stamp it. So, if you don't win at

the trial court level, you're most

likely not going to win on appeal. So,

as of right now, really, the only people

who are getting bond or even are

considered to be bond eligible are those

who entered with inspection. those who

had a passport, had a visa, and were

inspected when they came into the United

States. As I mentioned, the Board of

Immigration Appeals handed down a case a

few weeks ago called Matter of Fertado,

where they're saying that if you enter

the United States without inspection,

you are an arriving alien. Therefore,

you're subject to mandatory detention.

Therefore, you are not allowed to see a

judge and you're not allowed to get a

bond determination. The judge is

prohibited from giving you bond. And

this could be true even though you've

been in the United States for 20 years.

So that's really shifted the way we

think about cases. So now, are you going

to file an I130 petition for your spouse

who entered without inspection if

they're not going to get to see a judge?

Now, we and other people uh in the

immigration field are challenging these

decisions by immigration judges, but

it's slow. You're in detention while

it's pending, and not every judge is

receptive to it. I filed a recent bond

uh challenge through a habius corpus

petition and I was assigned to a judge

appointed by President Trump and that

case is slowly making its way through

the courts because the court I believe

doesn't like my petition doesn't want to

rule in favor of the immigrant and just

by letting him sit in jail longer you

know the whole thing with a rid of

habius scorpus is speed you want to get

the person out and so if the board of

immigration appeals is allowed to

prohibit any of these people who entered

without inspection that's going to speed

up deportation because a lot more people

are going to throw in the towel and take

voluntary departure because they don't

want to sit in jail because of this

crappy ruling from the Board of

Immigration Appeals. So, bond is tough.

Bond is getting harder. The Trump

administration is trying to keep more

and more people in immigration

detention. And if you or a family member

are in immigration detention and you

would like our help, we could help with

trying to get your friend or family

member out of detention. If they have a

defense to deportation, we can certainly

represent them with that. And if there's

a question as to whether or not they're

an aggravated felony, you can challenge

whether someone is subject to mandatory

detention, you just have a high burden.

And if they are subject to mandatory

detention, they don't get bond. And

then, of course, we can help with the

underlying removal case as well. If you

want to work with us or hire us, give us

a call at 314-961-8200.

Email us info@hackingimmigrationaw.com.

If you're just looking for free

resources, that's okay, too. We have a

ton of them. You can go to Facebook,

which is our immigrant home Facebook

group. We have 15,000 people talking

about the immigration process in there

every day. We have our YouTube channel

that you can subscribe to and turn on

alerts and you'll get uh alerted

whenever we post a new video like this

one. We also have our immigration answer

show which is a live show that I do uh

three or four times a week um called the

immigration answer show. You can find

that on Tik Tok, YouTube, Facebook,

Twitter, and LinkedIn. We'd love to have

you join us there. And you can uh sign

up ahead of time and ask me questions.

You can come on the air and ask me

questions for free about your case or a

hypothetical. We try to keep people's

identities hidden, but we're getting

lots of good information out into the

world and teaching people how

immigration works, and we love to talk

to you there. So, find us on YouTube.

That's probably the easiest way.

Immigrant uh immigration answer show is

where we're at. Thanks so much and we'll

see you next