BIA decision strips Immigration Judges of bond authority

A Board of Immigration Appeals decision stripped Immigration Judges of the authority to issue bonds. Please see this excellent analysis by the American Immigration Council.

On September 5, 2025, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA)—the appellate body within the U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR)—issued a precedential decision in Matter of Yajure Hurtado, 29 I&N Dec. 216 (BIA 2025). This ruling significantly alters decades of established immigration practice by holding that Immigration Judges (IJs) lack the authority to conduct bond hearings or grant release on bond to noncitizens who are present in the United States without having been lawfully admitted or paroled. In essence, it mandates detention for these individuals during removal proceedings, treating them as “applicants for admission” under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), regardless of how long they have lived in the country or the circumstances of their apprehension.

This decision builds on a July 2025 BIA ruling in Matter of Q. Li, 28 I&N Dec. 728 (BIA 2025), which limited bond eligibility for those apprehended near the border shortly after entry. However, Yajure Hurtado extends this far more broadly, affecting potentially millions of noncitizens who entered without inspection (EWI)—a common pathway for undocumented immigrants, accounting for about 62 percent of new immigration cases in 2025.