Immigrant Families Given Opportunity To Bond Out Of Detention

By Mónica Ortiz Uribe
February 27, 2015

Attorneys representing immigrant families detained in Texas report the federal government has started setting bonds that would allow their clients to be released.

When the wave of Central American immigrants hit the South Texas border last summer, authorities responded by detaining hundreds of women and children.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) argued that detention served as a deterrent to future illegal immigration. ICE denied bond to many of those families, even those who sought asylum.

On Feb. 20 a federal district judge in Washington D.C., issued an injunction against ICE's detention policies. Now the agency is allowing some of those immigrants to be released on bond.

Denise Gilman, a Texas immigration attorney, says she's seeing bonds set at $7,500.

"The families are still going to need to go immigration court to try and get a lower bond that they can actually pay and get out of detention," Gilman said.

The federal government has plans to continue expanding family detention centers in Texas this year.