The Price of Freedom
When ICE arrests an immigrant, a judge decides whether they stay locked up or go free on bond. Our data covers NaN million bond hearings. The average bond: $11,412. The grant rate: just 4.3%.
Immigration Bond, Explained
Immigration bond works like criminal bail — it's a financial guarantee that the person will appear for their court hearings. But there are critical differences:
- No right to bond — Some categories of immigrants are subject to "mandatory detention" with no bond hearing at all (people with certain criminal convictions, arriving asylum seekers under some policies)
- Bonds start at $1,500 — But judges routinely set them at $5,000-$25,000 or higher
- The median bond is $7,500 — More common than the average because a few very high bonds skew the mean up
- No public defender — People argue for their own bond in a language most don't speak
The 4.3% Grant Rate
Of NaN million bond hearings, only 4.3% result in bond being granted. The rest? Continued, denied, or administratively closed. This means the overwhelming majority of people who request bond remain detained.
The grant rate varies dramatically by court. Judges in some courts grant bond at 10-15x the rate of others — for the same types of cases. This mirrors the "judge roulette" pattern we see in asylum cases: your outcome depends heavily on your judge, not your case.
Who Can Afford Freedom?
A $11,412 bond might not sound outrageous by American standards. But for someone recently arrested by ICE — often separated from family, with frozen bank accounts, earning below minimum wage or not working — it's insurmountable.
The bond system creates a two-tier justice system:
- Those who can pay go home, hire lawyers, gather evidence, and attend hearings. They win their cases at dramatically higher rates.
- Those who can't pay stay in detention — isolated from lawyers and evidence, pressured to accept deportation to end the misery, and facing their hearings from inside a jail.
Studies consistently show that detained immigrants are 2-4x more likely to be deported than non-detained immigrants with similar cases. Bond isn't just about comfort — it's a predictor of case outcome.
The Bond Fund Movement
Community organizations now run bond funds — pooling donations to pay bond for immigrants who can't afford it. Since bond is returned when the person appears for court (minus a small fee), these funds are partially self-sustaining.
The results are striking: people released on bond by these funds show up for court at rates above 90% — debunking the "flight risk" justification for high bonds and detention. Most people show up because they want to win their case, not flee from it.
The Cost of Detention
ICE detention costs the government approximately $150-$300 per person per day. For someone detained for a year awaiting their hearing, that's $55,000-$110,000 in taxpayer money — far more than the bond that would have released them.
The U.S. detained an average of 25,000-40,000 people per day during this period, at an annual cost of $3-4 billion. Whether this represents necessary public safety spending or wasteful incarceration depends on your perspective — but the numbers are real.
Mandatory Detention
Many detained immigrants never get a bond hearing at all. Under INA § 236(c), people with certain criminal convictions are subject to mandatory detention — no judge can release them, regardless of circumstances. This includes minor drug offenses, old convictions that have already been served, and even some misdemeanors.
The Supreme Court has upheld mandatory detention but required that detained immigrants receive periodic bond hearings after 6 months. In practice, these hearings shift the burden to the immigrant to prove they're not a danger or flight risk — while locked up and often without a lawyer.