ICE Detention in 2026: Bond Eligibility After Q. Li and Yajure-Hurtado, Mandatory Detention, and Federal Habeas Strategy

In 2025, the BIA rewrote detention practice. Matter of Q. Li held arriving aliens arrested between ports of entry ineligible for bond. Matter of Yajure-Hurtado stripped bond jurisdiction over entrants without inspection. July 2025 DHS guidance treats longtime residents as recent arrivals under INA § 235(b). The Laken Riley Act adds charge-based mandatory detention triggers.

The consequences compound quickly. Classify an arrest under § 235(b), and there is no bond hearing at all. Add a Laken Riley charge, and detention becomes mandatory. Lose the custody redetermination, and habeas under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 becomes the only path. Wait too long, and a transfer strands the case in an unfavorable circuit — while the Supreme Court weighs the constitutional right to a bond hearing.

Attendees leave with a bond-eligibility screening framework, a plan for building the redetermination record in days, and a § 2241 filing strategy covering venue, respondent, exhaustion, and remedies. They also gain release alternatives — humanitarian parole, discretionary release, renewed custody motions — grounded in practitioner judgment no automated tool can substitute.