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Letter from Rep. Jayapal and House members asking DHS and DOJ to rescind the July memo
Office of Rep. Pramila Jayapal · 2026-02-10
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February 10, 2026
The Honorable Kristi Noem The Honorable Pam Bondi Mr. Todd M. Lyons
Secretary of Homeland Security U.S. Attorney General Acting Director
U.S. Department of Homeland U.S. Department of Justice U.S. Immigration and
Security 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, Customs Enforcement
2707 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., SE NW 500 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20528 Washington, DC 20530 Washington, DC 20024
Dear Secretary Noem, Attorney General Bondi, and Acting Director Lyons,
We write to address the Trump administration’s continued reliance on an absurd policy
that has been rejected by over 300 judges.1 In July, Acting Director Lyons issued a memo to
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employees declaring that immigrants, who at one
point entered the country between ports of entry, must be held in immigration detention without
receiving a bond hearing for the duration of their cases.2 ICE created a legal fiction on which to
rely: that all immigrants who entered without inspection, regardless of the timing of their entry,
are to be treated as if they are still seeking admission at the border, and therefore afforded fewer
protections under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). This ignores that the standard
detention provision for persons in removal proceedings, INA 236, expressly encompasses
persons who entered without inspection and thus are inadmissible.3
The memo declares that now, instead of processing individuals under the authorities of
Section 236 of the INA, ICE will now be relying on the far more restrictive Section 235. This is
despite the fact that Section 235 very clearly lays out to whom it applies: an inadmissible
noncitizen “who is arriving in the United States” or a noncitizen “who has not been admitted or
paroled into the United States” and who cannot prove two years of continuous physical presence
in the United States.4 ICE conveniently ignores this so that it can indiscriminately throw more
people into immigration detention to juice the administration’s detention statistics in the hope
that the heinous conditions in immigration detention centers will force people to stop fighting
their cases and accept deportation.
This policy flies in the face of the Due Process Clause of the Constitution, decades of
precedent, and common sense. Unsurprisingly, this has led to many challenges in federal court,
resulting in courts becoming clogged with these cases. This policy has been rejected by judges
1
Kyle Cheney, Hundreds of judges reject Trump’s mandatory detention policy, with no end in sight, POLITICO (Jan.
5, 2026), https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/05/trump-administration-immigrants-mandatory-detention-
00709494.
2
Maria Sacchetti & Carol D. Leonnig, ICE declares millions of undocumented immigrants ineligible for bond
hearings, WASH. POST (Jul. 15, 2025), https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/07/14/ice-trump-
undocumented-immigrants-bond-hearings/.
3
Memorandum from the Todd M. Lyons, Acting Dir. of Imm. and Customs Enforcement to all ICE Employees (Jul.
8, 2025) (https://immpolicytracking.org/policies/ice-issues-memo-eliminating-bond-hearings-for-undocumented-
immigrants/#/tab-policy-documents).
4
INA § 235 and 236; 8 U.S.C. § 1225 and 1226.
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in 35 different states, appointed by every President since Ronald Reagan, including 33 judges
appointed by President Trump.5 This is such a clear-cut violation of the law that even some of
the President’s most recent appointees have rejected it. Judge Kyle Dudek of the Middle District
of Florida ruled against this interpretation a mere two weeks after being confirmed to his position
by the Senate.6
On November 25, California District Judge Sunshine Sykes certified a nationwide class
of individuals living in the United States upon being detained, ruling that such individuals are
entitled to bond hearings.7 However, despite this ruling and the hundreds of similar rulings,
immigrants across the country continue to be denied bond hearings due to ICE’s policy.8
This must end. As executive branch appointees, your job is to enforce the law. Over 300
judges have told you 1,600 times exactly what the law is.9 Now you must follow it. Rescind this
absurd memo and allow detained immigrants the opportunity to obtain bond hearings.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Pramila Jayapal Eleanor Holmes Norton
Ranking Member Member of Congress
Immigration Integrity,
Security, and Enforcement
House Judiciary Committee
Shontel M. Brown Rashida Tlaib
Member of Congress Member of Congress
5
Cheney, supra note 1; Kyle Cheney, More than 220 judges have now rejected the Trump admin’s mass detention
policy, POLITICO (Nov. 28, 2025), https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/28/trump-detention-deportation-policy-
00669861.
6
Kyle Cheney, Judges appointed by Trump keep ruling against him. He’s not happy about it., POLITICO (Oct. 6,
2025), https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/06/trump-judges-ruling-against-him-00595511.
7
Daniel Wiessner, US judge orders Trump administration to provide bond hearings to detained migrants, Reuters
(Nov. 25, 2025), https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-judge-orders-trump-administration-provide-bond-
hearings-detained-migrants-2025-11-25/.
8
Mark Rivera, et. al., Judge's order could make thousands of arrested immigrants eligible for bond hearings and
release, ABC7 (Dec. 2, 2025), https://abc7chicago.com/post/us-immigration-news-judges-order-could-make-
thousands-arrested-immigrants-eligible-bond-hearings-release/18242722/.
9
Cheney, supra note 1.
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Henry C. "Hank" Johnson, Jr. Andrea Salinas
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Suzanne Bonamici Zoe Lofgren
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Greg Casar Mark Pocan
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Paul D. Tonko Nanette Diaz Barragán
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Maxine Dexter Jasmine Crockett
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Deborah K. Ross Jill Tokuda
Member of Congress Member of Congress
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John Garamendi Dan Goldman
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Danny K. Davis April McClain Delaney
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Juan Vargas Robert J. Menendez
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Val Hoyle Jimmy Gomez
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Lizzie Fletcher Yassamin Ansari
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Delia C. Ramirez Lateefah Simon
Member of Congress Member of Congress
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Adam Smith Jahana Hayes
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Emily Randall Darren Soto
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Yvette D. Clarke Nikema Williams
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Madeleine Dean Chellie Pingree
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Mary Gay Scanlon Sydney Kamlager-Dove
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Becca Balint Ted W. Lieu
Member of Congress Member of Congress
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Morgan McGarvey Teresa Leger Fernández
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Jamie Raskin Jesús G. "Chuy" García
Member of Congress Member of Congress
LaMonica McIver Kelly Morrison
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Bonnie Watson Coleman Veronica Escobar
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Robin L. Kelly Valerie P. Foushee
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Salud Carbajal Derek T. Tran
Member of Congress Member of Congress
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Sylvia R. Garcia Melanie Stansbury
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Nydia M. Velázquez Ritchie Torres
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Frank Pallone, Jr. Donald S. Beyer Jr.
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Lori Trahan Adelita S. Grijalva
Member of Congress Member of Congress
Laura Friedman Ilhan Omar
Member of Congress Member of Congress