The NYC ICE Office Has Pretty Much Stopped Releasing People | New York Civil Liberties Union

The data show that starting in 2017, ICE's New York Field Office all but eliminated bond or release for people awaiting immigration hearings. From 2013 to June 2017, approximately 47 percent of those deemed to be low risk by the government were granted release. From June 2017 to September 2019, that figure plummeted to three percent.

The sharp drop in release rates is even more dramatic given the spike in arrests made by ICE and the expansion of arrests to include those without criminal histories under the Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" policy. During the administration's first year in office alone, ICE arrests of people in New York with no criminal history who resided in the United States for ten or more years increased by 334 percent.

Last week, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Bronx Defenders filed a lawsuit exposing this devastating new policy, and challenging the practice of keeping almost everyone behind bars. 

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