Immigrants rights advocates are considering to challenge Attorney General William Barr’s unilateral decision to deny bond to some asylum-seekers in court, calling the move part of Donald Trump’s “assault on the asylum system. From the beginning it's been, 'Lock them up,'" said Judy Rabinovitz of the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants' Rights Project.
As attorney general, Barr wields vast authority over immigration courts. According to his decision, which goes into effect in 90 days, asylum-seekers who arrive at the U.S. southern border between ports of entry no longer have the right to ask to be released on bond, which means they could now be detained for months longer. This decision is inhumane, and raises the question of how ICE will jail these vulnerable people in the first place.
Immigrant rights advocacy group America’s Voice noted earlier this year that “despite the Congressional authorization of only 40,500 detention beds, ICE has consistently spent more money detaining more people. As of January 1, 2019, ICE peaked at 48,019 detained individuals." ICE, the group said, “spends first, then runs to Congress to cover irresponsible over-spending.”
“[Barr’s] ruling will have an impact on single adults seeking asylum—since ICE may not be inclined to release them if it doesn’t have to, and a judge can no longer compel that release,” reported Vox’s Dara Lind. “If ICE spends its detention budget even faster now, though, it just accelerates a coming confrontation with Congress when the money runs out.”
Because of a prior court agreement, families may not fall under the attorney general’s decision, but that hasn’t stopped the administration from floating the reimplementation of family separation, forcing parents to “either waive their children’s rights and be detained indefinitely, or waive their own rights and get separated.” The only thing behind the administration’s proposing any of this is, as 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro said, sheer cruelty.
"From separating families to attacking asylum seekers, this administration's bottomless cruelty has failed time and time again,” he said. "We need compassion, not cruelty, in our immigration system."