{"id":9298,"date":"2026-05-26T16:02:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T16:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=9298"},"modified":"2026-05-26T16:02:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T16:02:21","slug":"trumps-no-bond-policy-for-immigrants-in-custody-played-out-for-years-in-one-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=9298","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s no-bond policy for immigrants in custody played out for years in one city"},"content":{"rendered":"

By CEDAR ATTANASIO<\/strong><\/p>\n

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) \u2014 Four immigration judges in Washington state were years ahead of a sea change in immigration enforcement that has reversed a long American tradition.<\/p>

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The denial of bond for many held on immigration charges has unleashed tens of thousands of lawsuits since July, alleging violations of constitutional rights against illegal confinement. The Trump administration suffered a legal setback this month when an appeals court knocked down its policy after two other appeals courts had agreed with it, setting up a likely showdown at the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

The practice had already played out for years in Tacoma, where immigration judges at the Northwest ICE Processing Center started denying bond early this decade. Few people noticed outside the immigration attorneys there. But when the Trump administration adopted the theory last year, it echoed the judges\u2019 reasoning.<\/p>\n

The Tacoma judges decided Congress never authorized them to grant bond<\/h4>\n

Neil Floyd, the only one of the four Tacoma judges who agreed to talk to The Associated Press, said clerks researched the issue for about six months before the judges decided Congress never authorized them to grant bond.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made the decision that we were going to do it collectively because it was too big a decision for someone to step out that far on their own,\u201d said Floyd, who became the top federal prosecutor in Seattle during President Donald Trump\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n

The judges took their cue from a 1996 law that states that \u201capplicants for admission\u201d to the United States must be detained. The law was long interpreted as affecting people recently crossing the border without legal permission. People living here for years were categorized under a different statute that allowed bond hearings.<\/p>\n

The Tacoma judges may seem like unlikely figures to spearhead such radical change. While all four \u2014 Theresa Scala, the chief Tacoma judge at the time; John Odell; Tammy Fitting; and Floyd \u2014 started their careers as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyers, they each granted asylum at rates slightly higher than the national average.<\/p>

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Floyd, who left Tacoma after Trump took office last year to advise the FBI on immigration law before moving to his current position, said the judges\u2019 conclusion was a matter of fairness based on the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the right interpretation of the law, and it\u2019s the only fair one, because if you enter the United States the right way, by coming and knocking on the door to ask for asylum at a port of entry, the law is 100% clear,\u201d Floyd said. \u201cAnd it has been from the beginning that you are detained until we decide whether or not we\u2019re going to let you in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Immigration lawyers in Tacoma were stunned. They scoured the nation for anything similar and found nothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was from our perspective, a pretty blatantly prosecutorial push to keep people locked up,\u201d said Matt Adams, an attorney for Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, which sued over the practice. The case has not yet been scheduled for trial.<\/p>

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The lawsuit, filed in March 2025, alleges that the Tacoma judges ignored decades of precedent.<\/p>

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The Justice Department\u2019s Executive Office for Immigration Review, which operates more than 70 immigration courts nationwide, did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n