ICE Issues Guidance Applying Mandatory Detention to Interior Immigrants

ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons issued interim guidance on July 8, 2025, declaring that Section 235 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which governs mandatory detention of applicants for admission at the border, applied to all undocumented immigrants detained in the interior of the US regardless of how long they had lived in the country. The memo eliminated bond hearings for millions who had previously been eligible for individualized review under Section 236.